Student Blog
Bethany
Childhood Occupations In Summer ⟩
July 20, 2020, by Bethany
For part of the summer, my brother and I went to stay with our cousins. It was the perfect time to go. Our parents wanted to remodel the kitchen, which would frustrate my brother and I, as we are stuck taking online classes from home, and my aunt and uncle needed to entertain their three kids who were also stuck at home. So we moved to Hawaii for six weeks, continuing online classes, which now started at 6am instead of 9am for me, and spending our afternoons with the cousins.
Having not been out of the house for a while, I loved observing the occupations that people chose during an encouraged stay-at-home time. I was in a unique position to be able to see others’ occupations, not just my family’s. I especially loved the fact that I had an excuse to engage once again in childhood occupations. It’s harder to find reasons to have random water balloon fights when all of your friends are over twenty and everyone is being encouraged to stay away from one another. But now under the same roof with three younger cousins, I had the chance to observe, relearn, and engage in some of the most exciting childhood occupations.
One of my cousins fell in love with baking. He had already loved the culinary arts before the safer at home order, and then as his free time expanded, so did his passion for baking. My brother and I were a new audience to wow with the recipes he had perfected for his own family, and we helped him concoct new ways to get creative, too. The second we arrived, he showed us his first creation: a red velvet cake decorated with green lemon-flavored icing. The red was for my love for USC, and the green for my brother’s school. The cake was gone all too soon, but my cousin was quick to create an entire baking schedule with things we had to try while we were here, including a double-layer carrot cake. My brother and I helped him come up with ways to make use of extra pie crust, like making cinnamon-roll-like creations topped with blueberry compote.
A double-layer carrot cake
The youngest cousins showed me the garden. Many different potted plants stood out in the front of their house. She took care to water the garden daily and to check to see if things were growing. In contrast, the oldest cousin’s most common occupations were playing video games with my brother and self-learning riffs on guitar or piano to famous songs like “Piano Man.” And although the cousins engaged in occupations I was used to, such as going to walk the dog and watching TV shows, my favorite occupations to witness and join in on were self-made entertainment.
The cousins could entertain themselves, and me, by turning anything into a game. For example, my brother started showing them a magic trick, having them pick a card from the deck and finding it again. Once he got tired of that, somehow, the game instead turned into “randomly guess the card.” The entire 5-cousin group would randomly shout cards (“Ace of spades!”), someone would turn the next one in the deck over, and you would either hear shouts of disbelief and excitement, groans of frustration if the number was only one off, or more commonly small sighs and next guesses. The game took up at least ten minutes. Ten minutes of random card guessing, and I had fun with it. I guess the anticipation in the occupation and the people with whom I was participating made the occupation increasingly engaging.
On a socially-distanced beach trip, I stayed in the shallow water with the younger cousins, jumping waves. Then the youngest dived down and grabbed a rock. We spent the next twenty minutes using the rock as if it were a pool dive toy, where I’d throw it and she’d get it, over and over again. That day, we also dug a giant hole. And then right after, we filled it in before leaving to make sure no one would fall into it. But I was struck by the short-lived nature of these occupations, how it seemed so necessary and important to frantically dig water out of the hole as the waves rolled in so that the hole would not fill up, but then we filled it up ourselves an hour later. And yet, these became some of the most fun moments.
Beach walks
It’s the small daily activities of entertainment like making toys act out a play, trying to mimic how Han Solo runs, or trying to bounce a ping pong ball into a cup that become memorable, silly moments. It’s not just the activity, but the context, the place, the people, and the purpose, that make them meaningful occupations. In one of the books I was able to pick up this summer, Liturgy of the Ordinary, by Tish Warren (2016), I read that “Children never tire of beauty and pleasure. They embrace enjoyment with abandon. They don’t feel guilty about taking time to search for feathers, invent a game, or enjoy a treat” (p. 132). And getting to participate in these activities with my cousins has helped me begin to rediscover my own wonder with the world.
Reference
Warren, T. H. (2016). Liturgy of the ordinary: Sacred practices in everyday life. InterVarsity Press.
⋯
Try Everything: Selecting Electives ⟩
July 8, 2020, by Bethany
Due to the pandemic and recommendations for social distancing, our summer classes have put us ahead of schedule in terms of coursework. So when I went to go check my email the other day, I found a message about picking electives for the Fall semester. I was both overwhelmed and nervous, but thankfully, the email also mentioned a Zoom information meeting to help us learn more about our options and what Fall is going to look like.
The electives have been something I have been looking forward to in this program for a long time. A lot of the Master’s coursework follows different practice immersions and thread courses throughout a specific course sequence designed to let us get a taste of OT in all of its forms. After those first semesters, we get to choose from a variety of electives for us to consider, either to specialize or to broaden our scope of knowledge further.
I had come into this program very interested in hand therapy, since it was one of my first experiences with OT. I also had the chance to volunteer under the same hand therapist later during my undergraduate career. For next semester, there were two courses related to hand therapy, OT 573: Hand Rehabilitation and OT 562: Advance Practice in Hand Therapy and Physical Agent Modalities. Hand therapy had always been a consideration, but now, after going through two of the Division’s immersions, I am considering other possibilities as well.
I was excited to be in Adult Physical Rehabilitation as my first immersion. I wanted to see more hand therapy, but then even just starting the immersion, I was able to experience the ways in which Rehab applies to so much more: transfers after hip replacements, creating memory devices, or even relearning the use of a limb after a stroke. At my fieldwork site, I was lucky to be able to experience interdisciplinary work, looking at how occupational therapists work with experts in other fields. In observing an interdisciplinary group for a wheelchair consultation, I began to understand the unique perspective that OT has to offer to complement the views of a physician, a physical therapist, and nurse.
I had been wary of the Mental Health immersion. Being a type A person, I had expected to be most drawn to the Adult Physical Rehab process of having certain activities tied to certain physical outcomes. I was at first almost scared by the seeming vastness and uncertainty of Mental Health. Instead, I found myself intrigued by the power of conversation and by the power of activity. I ran groups at my fieldwork site, engaging people not just through words but also in actions, through activities like a music group, origami, and activities engaging the senses. I fell in love with occupational therapy all over again, amazed by the power of doing, how activity does not just impact the physical, but mental aspects as well. I had expected the immersions to help me narrow down which field I wanted to be in; however, I feel like my choices are only expanding.
And now, I am very much looking forward to the Pediatrics immersion. I expect myself to come into the immersion with a more open mind. Though, I am worried that I will come away from the immersion with my mind open to even more possibilities than I am already considering.
The electives open to us for the Fall were numerous and varied, covering topics from Lifestyle Redesign to ergonomics to dysphagia and swallowing. I realized that I do not have to take courses only focusing on hand therapy if I do not want to. I’ve decided this Fall that instead of taking two hand courses, I will instead take a few others to diversify my course load. In addition to OT 573, I have requested clearance for OT 563: Occupational Therapy in Primary Healthcare Environments and OT 566: Healthcare Communication with Spanish-Speaking Clients. I’m excited to see how these different courses will prepare me to be a better clinician in the future!
⋯
Reflection: Moving Back Home ⟩
June 22, 2020, by Bethany
This past March, I moved back home. It was a strange enough transition: leaving school for Spring Break and not returning, and my brother also came back from college in Texas. What made it all the more strange was realizing that I’m staying. For all four years of my undergraduate career, I chose to stay out by the University Park Campus, making it easier for me to meet new people, get to class easily, and be a part of school organizations. However, for the OT MA program, most of the people, classes, and organizations are on a different campus, the Health Sciences Campus, which happens to be a commute-able distance from home.
But even during the end of the school year, as I completed classes on my computer, I realized that staying at home does not mean a change in which occupations I participate, but in the way that I do so. I still spend most of my day in class, even if it is online, and I can still make time for people after class, in Bible studies, Zoom chats with friends, or even playing online games. Many of my other friends finishing undergrad are also moving back home to commute, so I am not alone in this transition. In fact, some of my high school friends are also coming back home, one of them joining me at USC through online-in-person-hybrid classes as a new student at the PT school. The classes and labs that we attend in person will be in the same building!
Some of the occupations that have changed are centered around family. I now have more accountability for working out, as my mom and I complete workout videos together. My parents cook amazing meals, and as we sit around the dinner table, we get to reflect on past memories, discuss what happened at work or school today, or even have difficult conversations about current events. One of the best new occupations is watching TV shows with my parents. I did not grow up with TV. When I left for college, we had a tube television in our house, so I discovered TV shows in college. After I left, my parents replaced the TV (and me) with our family’s first flatscreen. Shows like The Mentalist and Monk became their favorites, and I got to join in on watching with them after dinner. I am blessed to have a home to come back to and a place to be as I finish up my Master’s, and I’m excited to see how I adjust and grow to both new and changing occupations.
⋯
A Whole New Virtual World ⟩
June 9, 2020, by Bethany
During this time of social distancing, we’ve learned that it can be difficult to stay in touch with people. Especially as college students, moving away from campus and being back home was quite a transition. And my class’ position as seniors only amplified our experience. We were planning on cramming last minute hang outs together into our final weeks, making the most our proximity, but those weeks never came. However, over time, we began to get creative with the ways that we stayed connected. And even as things slowly open up, there are still some creative ways to stay in touch that we will continue to do.
Zoom Game Night
One of the student organizations I was a part of was Intervarsity Trojan Christian Fellowship. We have a tradition of having Senior Office Hours through the last week for the seniors to hang out with everyone in the fellowship. Organizing these virtually was difficult, but we found a lot of fun games that work over video chat! One of my personal favorites (and one at which I am unfortunately not that great) is Codenames. In Codenames, you work with your team to help them make the correct selections on a grid of 25 random words by using only one word clues.
Skribbl.io is an online version of pictionary that has one player draw at a time while the others type in guesses. It is even more fun to add the element of video chat to watch everyone’s reactions to the others’ drawings, sometimes bemoaning their own artistic ability. Be careful, though: Spelling counts on this game! Although the program will let you know when your answer is close, you still have to spell it correctly for the answer to go through. One word given was Colosseum, and although the participant drew a beautiful rendition, her audience unfortunately consisted of USC seniors, who were all too familiar with the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where our football team plays every home game. Watching the numerous attempts and re-attempts at spelling was frustrating, but garnered laughs all the same.
You can find many more games here, on a list compiled by another socially-distancing college student. The list is even organized by type of game, from board games to card games and even escape rooms! The author is ever updating the list, so if you have site recommendations, you can send them her way through the link on the document. You’ll find some old favorites, but I highly recommend trying something new, too! I learned Settlers of Catan through the online version, a challenging but overall fun experience.
Team Challenges
My family has taken this time to keep in touch with extended family members as well. Through Marco Polo, a video messaging app, each group of cousins takes turns challenging the other families to post a video in the group. The first challenge was a family dance challenge, where each family choreographed and performed a 30+ second clip. Then we sent the videos to our grandparents, and they came up with their own categories of choreography, enthusiasm, costuming, and more to rank each performance. I’m proud to say that my family got top marks for enthusiasm when the dog showed up wearing sunglasses for the opening. We’ve also done challenges for mimicking old family photos, recreating a movie scene, and re-writing the lyrics to a song to reflect our social distancing experiences. The challenges are a great way to stay in touch, keep younger cousins busy, and see everyone’s creative side!
Start A Series
Now that we know that many of our gatherings will continue online, what better time to start a series with someone. Netflix Party is one app that allows different users to simultaneously watch the same content. If the content is not through Netflix, there is also a screen-share option through video chat. Anything from TV shows to different movie series, Friends to Harry Potter. Having a series is a nice way to keep continuity and to ensure that you regularly stay in touch with your watch group, because you can’t not watch the next installment!
These are only a few examples of the many ways we’ve learned to keep in touch as the world changes. And even in the future, as things open back up, I look forward to continuing to use these strategies to maintain relationships. Hopefully, you can take advantage of some of these suggestions or come up with some creative ones of your own!
⋯
Some Things Never Change ⟩
May 30, 2020, by Bethany
I began my journey at USC four years ago as a wide-eyed freshman in the Bachelor’s-to-Master’s Occupational Therapy program. I had no idea back then what a difference the next few years would make. The first life-changing decision I made took place even before Welcome Week started: I started Band Camp with the Trojan Marching Band. I fell in love with the passion students carry for their school. As classes began, I found that I had my own passion in OT, one that not as many people understood. So I quickly learned to share my story of finding what is, in my opinion, the perfect way to channel creativity to help others.
I learned to support the spirit of the university and to advocate for occupational therapy, and I decided that I wanted to do both of these more vocally. My sophomore year, I became a Student Ambassador and Tour Guide in the Admission Center, doing my best to encapsulate my entire USC experience in 90 minute tours. I also spent a summer as a Student Ambassador for the Chan Division.
Then came a unique transition. As a Bachelor’s-to-Master’s student, I spent my senior year in the first year of the Master’s program. Through the challenge of finding balance between finding closure and starting anew, I realized that my desire to help others better understand what OT and USC would look like for them had not changed. So here I am. Back again as a Student Ambassador for the Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy. And I couldn’t be more excited to share my experience with all of you!
⋯
Subscribe | RSS