Back in My Day: Bridging the gap between Grandpa and Grandpaw
November 3, 2021

By Lois Angelo / Daily Trojan

While my straightforward personality can be broken down into three simple categories — my love for gerontology, my grief for my exes, my obsession with TWICE — I rarely talk about my interest in occupational therapy. Through classes for my occupational science minor, professors instill time and time again that I need to develop my own definition for occupations, so here’s my take: Occupations are activities that, whether we enjoy them or not, are critical to our daily function and social engagement.

In fact, I am learning more about my favorite occupation through a class on animal companions and communication — specifically, animal assisted therapy. Personally, I have a maltipoo named “Tobias ‘Toby’ Angelo” — a generic, small, crusty-eyed white dog owned by a middle-class Asian family. Toby certainly does not qualify as a therapy dog like some of his peers, but he still helps me get through my day as one of the few things I look forward to on my drive back home.

Read the full article at Daily Trojan.

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