Student Blog
Kendra
Returning to school ⟩
January 11, 2013, by Kendra
Happy 2013 blog readers! I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable holiday, I know I did! Below is a picture of my husband and I freezing our bums off in the Pacific Northwest!
But now it’s back to life, back to reality, and back to school. This semester will be unlike any I’ve had so far. The final semester of the MA OT program is when we get the opportunity to begin specializing and focusing on different practice areas. This spring I’m taking Ergonomics, Dysphagia, Motor Control, and Lifestyle Redesign. Each, I believe, will allow me to be a better applicant and employee for working with adults in acute care or outpatient care.
While it is very exciting, it is also terrifying. It’s as if when the ball dropped in Times Square to welcome in 2013, an alarm clock went off in my head screaming ‘real life, real career is coming, be prepared!!’ I feel this tension has settled over me and my peers as we take the final classes and final steps towards becoming certified occupational therapists. And as we near the finish line the alarm clock screams questions: are you sure you want to work with adults? You are so good with kids! Are you sure you want to learn Ergonomics what about Sensory integration? Where do I work? What setting? What side of town? It goes on and on and on.
These same questions overwhelmed me when I was in undergrad, but then I did not have the faculty and peer support and information to help me make smart choices. I know, despite the panic, that I will be supported as I make my first steps as an OT. Yet another reason why I love this school, they prepare me to be a great OT on paper and in person.
That being said, the alarm clock still chimes, but this time I’ll funnel that panic into productive preparation!
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How do you make the season bright? ⟩
December 12, 2012, by Kendra
Happy 12/12/12! This time tomorrow I will be blissfully done with all my final papers/exams, etc. And this time in one week I will be waking up to see the Olympic Mountains outside my window, spending my first Christmas away from my family with my husband. So many exciting changes to look forward to, and as I endeavor to make change I think on the traditions that have helped make this time of year so precious to me.
Some traditions I hold dear are food and presents (shocking I’m sure!). My family loves to gather in the kitchen and cook for hours on Christmas Eve. While we have a feast for Christmas Eve dinner we also feast throughout Christmas day, making it a relaxing, elastic waistband kind of day. But despite years of making homemade cinnamon rolls and potato soup and ceviche, we still have yet, after 20+ years of making Christmas dinner as a family, to find the perfect Christmas Eve dessert. Even though there is no perfect sweet treat to look forward to each year, it has become its own dysfunctional tradition: what new-fangled dessert do we try this year? We’ve done chocolate pudding, coconut cake, cookies, chocolate cake, and homemade ice cream. And despite all of their delicious success, we still prefer to try again next year. This odd little tradition is very close to my heart.
Another tradition I hold dear is wrapping presents. Odd right? But since I was 16, I’ve sat in my mother’s work room for hours upon hours making perfect hospital folds and sealing packages with invisible tape while my mother makes the most beautiful bows and the TV plays ‘Christmas in Connecticut’ or the ‘Muppet Christmas Carol.’ It is our quiet time between cooking and holiday parties, when we can reminisce and cry at a movie we’ve seen at least 20 times together.
This year I won’t be wrapping presents for hours or finding the perfect imperfect dessert, but I will be taking these traditions to my new family and in years to come sharing these traditions with my children. That is what makes the season bright for me.
So as people fly home, drive home, stay home for the holidays I wonder what are your holiday traditions? What do you do with your family to keep the season bright? What meals do you cook? What church service do you attend? How does your family open presents? How do you show your loved ones gratitude and love during the season?
Peace, Love and OT to all and happy break to students!
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Transitioning Occupations ⟩
December 5, 2012, by Kendra
Life Hacks School/Life Balance
Three years ago when I decided to switch gears from being an actor to becoming an occupational therapist, I went through a difficult transition. I constantly berated myself for giving up too soon or not having the chutzpah to make it work. In a way I went through an identity crisis. I had dedicated the majority of my life to acting! I moved thousands of miles away from home, dropped cash on classes, workshops, and headshots galore while working multiple jobs at wild hours just to make ends meet and get to auditions on time. Juggling so many factors just to maybe get a job took away the joy I’d felt performing over the years. Even though I wanted to be an actor more than anything I did not relish in the laborious, seemingly endless, struggle.
So when I decided to change careers I had to let go of a part of me, but I promised myself I would always find my way back to performing. But next time it would be on my terms. I could do it as a hobby, as a side project, for fun not money. Part of me thought that was a bunch of bologna, but part of me hoped I was right.
Having made the transition and been in grad school for nearly two years, I am so glad I made the choice I did. Knowing what I know now about occupations, I also know that I was never ‘giving up’ acting. It will always be a part of me. What I did was shift its definition within my life, moving it from work to play and leisure activities. Doing this allows it to best suit my personal needs, and therefore be a more meaningful, fulfilling occupation as opposed to one causing stress.
I had my first read-thru for a web series this last weekend. It was wonderful. Exciting. Freeing. Invigorating. Never once was I worried how this would affect other auditions, or disappointed it didn’t pay. I was able to indulge in the performance and truly sink my teeth into the experience. By redefining a meaningful occupation, I was able to find the just right fit for the rest of my life.
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Turkey traditions ⟩
November 28, 2012, by Kendra
So I know I’ve talked this semester occupations that connect us to our past like laundry and care giving. While the holiday season is the ‘most wonderful time of the year’ and the ‘season of giving.’ It’s also the season of stress, travel, finals, and so many cookies it makes my head spin.
What makes this time of year manageable are the traditions and chance to connect with family. This Thanksgiving I was thankful for my family’s long line of traditions and recipes that bind us together. Each Thanksgiving we cook old recipes, swap gifts, trim trees, and sing random songs I don’t think anyone outside my gene pool would know. Possibly the most important family recipe is my great-grandmother’s ‘Mimi’s buns,’ the world’s fluffiest potato biscuit ever. Ever. Now that I’m married I have to split the holidays, and its now more than ever that I am thankful for these traditions. Even though I am far away from my family, I can knead the dough, smell the rolls baking, and be transported back to my family and all the years we have performed this task. This also allows me to create traditions with my new family. As they bite into a bun, they are connecting to my great-grandparents and becoming a part of an old, and new, tradition. To me this all goes back to social support. It doesn’t have to be the physically present kind, its in the way the air smells as the buns bake and saying my grandfather’s blessing as we sit at the table that connects me to my social support no matter the distance.
Who’d a thought buns would make the holidays better?
So as we take part in black Fridays and cyber Mondays, pack our suitcases and ship presents think back to how it used to be. Does your family have traditions or recipes you can share with your framily (friend family) or in-laws? For thousands of years culture was passed down by tradition and storytelling. Even though we have the internet and can easily look up Ina Garten’s best recipe, what about your grandmother or great-grandmother’s recipe? The holidays are many things, but what they are across all faiths is a time to appreciate and love family. So as you sit down to feast after feast this year, think back and be thankful for the people who first found that pecan pie recipe, sewed the tablecloth, and wrote the blessing. Let your heritage connect you to now and shape your future.
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USC OT gets interactive! ⟩
November 16, 2012, by Kendra
Hi blog readers. One of the great things about USC OT being #1 is we are constantly pioneering in all realms of OT. As part of our endeavor to continue being the best program in the country, we are going with the times and getting into social media!
This is where you come in. Help us test our social media this weekend by checking out our blogs and just like it is on Facebook and Twitter if you like what we have to say or have something of your own to say, like it or leave a comment (we actually check those!). Or if you want to share our link on Twitter/Google help us out by being the first to do so.
So as you watch USC Fight on and beat UCLA, take a minute during half-time to read about OT and share it with your friends!
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