Student Blog
School/Life Balance

A Tribute to Open Mic BBQs, Swiftie Listening Parties, & Mid-Class G.I. Snack Runs >
May 1, 2023
by Mika

Community International School/Life Balance

Hello everyone!

It’s been a while since I last wrote a blog and I can’t believe it’s my last one! Bittersweet as it is, I want to dedicate this post to my classmates in the Post-Professional Master’s program — the wildest, most spontaneous, and the most generous set of people who I’m proud to have gotten to know the past 9 months.

To MA-1 Batch 2023,

Looking back at our first week of orientation, we were all a bunch of new faces filled with excitement and hints of anxiety for a new adventure in a new country. I remember how it was a struggle to remember all 50 names despite the x number of times we had to introduce ourselves in each class. I love that now I can recall everyone’s name and associate a special memory with each one of you!

One of my favorite memories was welcoming the school year with our summer barbeque party in the OT house. I loved getting to know all of you and I really appreciate the energy you all brought in with the activities and games prepared for us. I will definitely not forget when we turned the party into an open-mic night where everyone sang songs from their country and even tried to get our program director to sing with us. I think we love singing so much as a class that some of us even spent 6 hours of non-stop karaoke together!

As the Fall and Spring semesters progressed, I loved getting the opportunity to work with all of you and learn more about the OT practice in your respective countries. I loved how we all resonated with many common issues we as OTs faced (check my past blog: 10 Things I Hate About Occupational Therapy) and it somehow felt like I was in the same boat with people who understood and validated what I was feeling and going through. As how we say it in Filipino, I had a “kakampi” (teammate) to go through and navigate these issues in practice. I felt this not only with the similar concerns we had about the OT practice, but also with all the requirements and exams we have gone through as a class. I will miss looking back at anyone during class when I hear sounds of crumpled plastic since I know someone is opening food to share with everyone. I will also definitely miss having someone ask me, “Let’s go to Global Initiatives” to say hi to the staff there while we search for snacks.

Aside from learning each of your practice in your respective countries, I also loved learning each of you as individual persons! I love how some of us made a Taylor Swift cult and had a listening party at midnight for her latest album. Remember when we teamed up together to battle the rest of America to successfully get tickets for her concert? That was one of my favorite memories from that semester. I also love how I was able to share my love for Korean drama and Korean oppas with some of you, sharing when they have their recent posts up or trying to help each other find them when they visit LA.

I also appreciate everyone for being so down to help each other get through life in LA, whether by offering a ride or by offering their place to host some hangouts (shoutout to the MA1 House)! I really appreciate your generosity and I am so grateful I got a lot of weekend memories to remember — baking, going to Dockweiler beach, searching for good coffee in Silverlake, traveling to the Grand Canyon, celebrating Lunar New Year, or simply just hanging out.

Soon we’ll all be separated again and we will all be in our different paths but wherever you guys go, I hope you all remember that there will always be this loud and enthusiastic Filipina always cheering you on!

I want to end my blog with a quote I found online in Pinterest that encompasses what you guys mean to me:

“One day all of us will get separated from each other; we will miss our conversations of everything and nothing; the dreams that we had. Days will pass by, months, years until this contact becomes rare. One day our children will see our pictures and ask: ‘Who are these people?’ And we will smile with invisible tears because a heart is touched with a strong word and you will say ‘It was them that I had the best days of my life with.’”

أحبك
我愛你們
사랑해요
Te amo
मुझे तुमसे प्यार है
Mahal ko kayo!

Until we meet again! 🫶

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The Pre-OT Club Gets Crafty >
April 3, 2023
by The Pre-OT Club

Community Getting Involved School/Life Balance What are OS/OT?

Hello world!

My name is Taylor Kamemoto. I am a current pre-OT student and a senior at USC majoring in Psychology and the Health & Human Sciences. I also have minors in Occupational Science (a.k.a. best minor ever), and Musical Studies in Flute Performance! I am super excited to introduce the Pre-OT Club’s blog!

If you’re an undergrad interested in Occupational Therapy, you should definitely check out the Pre-Occupational Therapy Club! We are a club focused on spreading knowledge and awareness about the profession of Occupational Therapy here on the USC campus and even beyond our community walls. We have a wide range of club meeting topics, including inviting clinician guest speakers, hosting graduate student panels, social bonding events like game nights, philanthropy events such as gardening and food drives, and engaging in shared occupations together. These events allow club members to connect and find a sense of community with other Pre-OT students while enhancing our knowledge about the profession of OT. I have been involved since my freshman year (yes, we even had Zoom meetings during COVID) and I now serve as the current president.

So far, my favorite event this semester has been Craft Night! We worked directly with our club’s faculty advisor, Dr. Amber Bennett, who helped us reserve a space in the Center for Occupation and Lifestyle Redesign®. Dr. Bennett provided us with craft supplies such as wooden items to paint, ceramic piggy banks, scrapbook paper, and magazines. We had no guidelines and let our creative juices flow! We each created something unique. I used scrapbook paper to collage a picture frame and a clipboard. After an hour of crafting, we shared our projects with each other, and I was very impressed with what everyone created! I saw a box with a collage lid reading “Fight On,” a wooden “Statue of Liberty,” and fun collages. Check out our crafts below!

Email us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) to be added to our newsletter and get more information about our club! You can also follow us on Instagram at @uscpreotclub. We are always looking for more undergraduate students interested in Occupational Therapy and anyone who appreciates the nature of occupations and meaningful activities. Fight on, and welcome to our blog!

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These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things >
January 21, 2023
by Mika

Housing and Transportation International Life Hacks Living in LA School/Life Balance

Hello again and Happy New Year, my friends!

I wanted to start off the year with a blogpost about one my favorite childhood songs from the movie, The Sound of Music. If you have watched the movie, you might have remembered the scene where Fräulein Maria comforts the children amidst a storm. She tells them (or rather, sings to them) that whenever she feels scared or sad, she remembers her favorite things to help herself cheer up. Now, as a material girl, I kind of used this coping strategy as well to help me adapt to life here in Los Angeles. With that, I present to you some of my favorite things or must-have’s that helped me the past months.

1. Water Filter Pitcher
Moving to a new country requires you to find ways on how locals get their basics, like food or water. Based on the suggestions of some friends and family living in the States, they recommended me to get the Brita water filter pitcher. So far, I don’t have any problems with this brand that I bought; however, you can also opt to buy cheaper brands. These water filters also come in different sizes (even in a dispenser) and are available in local supermarkets like Target and Walmart.

2. Tide Pods
This has been a game changer for me doing laundry since it makes everything more efficient and quicker. This was not a common product back at home so when I discovered this, I really felt like a caveman discovering new technology.

3. Sink Garbage Disposal Unit
Okay, this device got me shouting U.S.A., U.S.A.! to my friends back at home LOL. Again, we don’t have this technology so I was happy to discover this in most American households since it made washing the dishes more convenient.

4. Air Fryer
This is not new technology for me but it definitely helped me save time in cooking meals in between studying. Shoutout to my lovely roommate for sharing this with all of us in the apartment!

5. Tabo (Dipper)
The Filipino in me is definitely showing with this one. I definitely cannot do my self-care occupations or other household chores without my beloved tabo or dipper. Although you can purchase these through Amazon or in Filipino supermarkets, I was able to buy a portable one (it was made of a rubber-like material so I could fold it to fit in my luggage) back home in the Philippines.

6. Dustpan
From what I understand, most locals use vacuum cleaners to clean their floors. However, I like to go Filipino old school and use a broom and a dustpan to clean some of my floors. For those who prefer cleaning this way like me, I wanted to share that I bought a detachable dustpan back at home and brought it here since most of the dustpans here were hand-held and quite-small, which often triggered my back pain when cleaning.

7. Mobile Applications
I found several mobile applications that had made my stay here in L.A. more convenient. Here are a few I found helpful:

• Ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft
• Public transportation apps like Transit and Tap
• Online shopping apps like Amazon (As a student, you can get Amazon Prime for free for 6 months!)
• Food and grocery delivery apps like Door Dash, Uber Eats, Amazon Fresh and Wee! (an Asian grocery delivery application)
• Yelp to find recommendations of places to eat around the area
• USC Gateway mobile app to help you know everything that’s happening in campus and to navigate your university life

8. Gifts (and snacks!) from home
Moving out of your comfort zone to a new country will bring about bouts of homesickness and loneliness from time to time. That is normal — it’s okay not to feel okay sometimes! To help me get through those moments, I’m blessed to have a good set of family and friends who sent some gifts and snacks to help me remember home. It definitely also helped that social media made keeping in touch with them possible!

And that’s the end of my list! What about you, what are your favorite things that get you by?

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23 Truths for 2023 >
January 18, 2023
by Yoojin

Community First-Gen School/Life Balance

Happy New Year Chan! I compiled some of my favorite quotes. There’s a good mix of bookmarked lines from cherished books, reminders for when life is a little rough, and encouragements to live a compassionate and sacrificial life.

1. “To me, there was magic in learning.” — Michelle Obama, Becoming
2. “Occupational therapy is more than a job. For many it is a calling. We felt drawn to it.” — Amy Lamb, OTD, OTR/L, FAOTA
3. “Do what is good. Advocate for what is right. And fight for what is important.” — Bryan Morales
4. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
5. “There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t.” — John Green, Turtles All the Way Down
6. “It always seems impossible until it is done.” — Nelson Mandela
7. “I wasn’t going to let one person’s opinion dislodge everything I thought I knew about myself.” — Michelle Obama, Becoming
8. “We don’t do all our growing up between birth and adolescence or even our twenties. If we’re fortunate, we never stop.” — Diane Guerrero, In the Country We Love: My Family Divided
9. “The presence of anxiety is unavoidable, but the prison of anxiety is optional.” — Max Lucado, Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World
10. “Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly, and most underrated agent of human change.” — Bob Kerrey
11. “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.” — Plato
12. “We often suffer, but we are never crushed. Even when we don’t know what to do, we never give up.” — 2 Corinthians 4:8
13. “An education is not so much about making a living as making a person.” — Tara Westover, Educated
14. “Why can’t I just eat my waffle?” — Barack Obama
15. “Listening to an underserved population is how you begin to understand them and serve them better.” — Constance Wu
16. “Friends love through all kinds of weather, and families stick together in all kinds of trouble.” — Proverbs 17:17
17. “Being yourself is all it takes. If you want to impress someone don’t be someone else just be yourself.” — Selena Gomez
18. “Living without passion is like being dead.” — Jungkook
19. “Rest and self-care are so important. When you take time to replenish your spirit, it allows you to serve others from the overflow. You cannot serve from an empty vessel.” — Eleanor Brownn
20. “Family is the most important thing in the world.” — Princess Diana
21. “It was possible, I knew, to live on two planes at once — to have one’s feet planted in reality but pointed in the direction of progress.” — Michelle Obama, Becoming
22. “Fall seven times, get up eight.” — Naoki Higashida
23. “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” — John F. Kennedy

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Cycling Saved Me! >
January 18, 2023
by Bryan M.

Community Living in LA School/Life Balance

Whenever prospective students ask me what I wish I would have known at the start of OT school, I always say the same thing: find something removed from OT school that you love doing, and keep consistent with it. Finding balance during your few years learning how to be an OT practitioner is a key part of preventing burnout and enhancing the learning experience in the classroom. Prioritizing your life outside of school is so important because it directly influences the kind of professional you are when you graduate. In this blog, I’m taking the time to write about my favorite non-OT related occupation: indoor cycling.

I began indoor cycling consistently in 2019 after I signed up for a class with an on-campus club I was a part of. My first class was rocky: I slept through my alarm, showed up late, and my foot got unclipped from the bike so I wasn’t able to take half of the class. Luckily, thanks to a new rider feedback form, the studio gave me a free class to try again, so I gave it another shot. This second class is where my love for cycling sprouted.

SoulCycle advertises itself as an “immersive and intense full-body workout,” and I can certainly attest to that. I fell in love with SoulCycle because I appreciated being able to work out both my body and my mind during class, mindfully listening to the inspiring words the instructors spoke while also cuing the exercise progression. I loved the classes so much that I ended up working for the company as Front Desk staff, something that I do even to this day while in OT school.

My love for indoor cycling exemplifies the power of meaningful occupations. Through the activity, I am able to provide myself a just-right challenge, keeping me engaged and motivated each time I go. Because of my commitment to this occupation, I am able to live a more balanced lifestyle in which my life isn’t consumed with only school and work. I’ve been able to remind myself that I am not just an occupational therapy student and have a life outside of school that I value and prioritize. I’m a well-rounded occupational being! This is something I think OT graduate students tend to forget, which is why I’m trying to remind others through this blog.

4 years later and nearly 500 classes later, I still consider indoor cycling one of my favorite occupations. Truly, I am so grateful for SoulCycle’s ability to keep me grounded during the trials and tribulations of school.

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