Student Blog
Life Hacks

Adventures in baking ⟩
February 24, 2014, by Rob

Life Hacks Living in LA

I recently had the opportunity to do some hiking and baking the same day, combining two of my favorite occupations. We started off driving up north of Pasadena to Eaton Canyon, a beautiful waterfall hike not too far from the city. The path was jammed with families, school trips, and people out to enjoy the weather and scenery. Fortunately, we know a little secret cutoff that takes hikers above the first falls and away from the crowds.

To get there is a little intense (read: FUN!). I mean, my frontal lobe is mostly developed, right? So I would be scared if there was real danger and I should exhibit good judgment (I just hope my mom isn’t reading this). We scaled a rocky area and edged along the cliff (see picture) to get to the next leg, which involved rock jumping along a stream bed, my favorite part. The reward was a deserted pool of clear, cold mountain water. Of course we jumped in!

That afternoon we baked double chocolate cookies stuffed with salted caramel, both made from scratch. I love to bake — it is a very therapeutic activity — and I’ve found that as I do it more and more, I get better at improvising. We mostly followed a recipe for this one and they were tasty. It was probably the best double chocolate chunk cookie dough I have eaten. I don’t usually eat the dough, but I snacked on this one the whole time! Try it out and share a favorite baking recipe with me if you have one . . .

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Uselessness is Gorgeous ⟩
January 29, 2014, by Clarissa

Life Hacks School/Life Balance What are OS/OT?

Normally, there’s a little lull at the beginning of the semester before it goes into full swing but this semester hasn’t been like that at all. I hit the ground running once the semester began. I’m really busy and I love it. In order to stay balanced, though, I’ve started thinking a lot about concepts I learned last semester in my Health Promotion and Wellness class. Particularly, I thought about a lecture we had about happiness and how I can ensure I have personally meaningful moments in the midst of my hectic schedule.

I thought our happiness lecture related really well to an art exhibit I saw when I visited Chicago over the summer. It’s called “The Happy Show” by Stefan Sagmeister, an individual who struggled with depression after his mother’s death. Because of his depression, he became interested in whether or not people can train their minds to be happy, similar to how people train their bodies. This one particularly beautiful art piece of his was made out of post-it notes and spelled out “Uselessness is gorgeous.” It looked like this:

Sagmeister accompanied this art piece with a personal experience that relates to the concept of “flow” which we also learned about in our Health Promotion and Wellness class. One experiences flow when completely absorbed in a satisfying activity and ceases to notice the passage of time. By this art piece, he wrote:

Uselessness is gorgeous. I came up with a reputable technique to artificially produce a moment of bliss: take a scooter, drive it on a beautiful road with little traffic so I can ride without a helmet and feel the wind in my hair while listening to about a dozen carefully selected songs, music that I don’t know well (so it won’t have any baggage) but am likely going to like. And very important: there can be no purpose to the drive, just cruising without any goal. This recipe would send shivers down my spine every time. To identify something without any goal and without any function has its own beauty: it’s the difference between a walk in the park and a commute. It’s the different between art and design.

This quote also reminded me of a pediatrics lecture my professor Dr. Erna Blanche gave where she said that without participating in activities that we do “just for the heck of it,” life wouldn’t be worth living. I found that Sagmeister’s view really complemented OT’s value of participating in activities simply because they are meaningful.

As for me, the closest moment I’ve experienced to Sagmeister’s description of bliss was my climb up Yosemite’s Half Dome, pictured below. When I reached the top and looked over all of Yosemite Valley, I forgot about time and space. I have decided to incorporate more nature into my life this semester in order to encourage a work-life balance.

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Snow Day! ⟩
December 13, 2013, by Rob

Life Hacks Living in LA

Last Friday I was giving a tour to a prospective student when what should we stumble upon but a giant snow pile next to Tommy Trojan on the main campus.

I’m always open to the unexpected when touring students on both of our campuses — you never know what might happen — but I was not prepared for snow! Being from Chicago, snow is nothing new to me, but after almost two years of sunny southern California, it certainly was a surprise.

Turned out, they had trucked in a load of snow and dumped it in the middle of campus for everyone to enjoy.

So naturally, I indulged my Midwestern roots (and my inner child) and had a good old fashioned snowball fight. I would love to brag about how I “won,” but the prospective student somehow managed to get snow down the back of my shirt. Fortunately for me, the snow fell between my outer shirt and inner shirt, which made the situation even more comical. Afterwards, I juggled snowballs for the first time!

Such good-natured fun was exactly what I needed in the middle of preparations for finals week. We had a big project due that morning and an essay due that afternoon. I was tired and just a little stressed. After playing in the snow, none of that seemed to matter. A little bit of occupation-based snow therapy was exactly what I needed!

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I Am Thankful ⟩
November 13, 2013, by Jen

Community Life Hacks

With Thanksgiving only one week away, I cannot help but think about all I have to be thankful for. I am thankful for the intelligent and caring faculty that is supporting me throughout my education at USC. I am thankful for my student ambassador co-workers who make my job even more enjoyable. I am thankful for my classmates who have become some of my closest friends. I am thankful for the skilled occupational therapists that have taken so much time to mentor me and enrich my learning experiences. I am thankful for my friends and family who give me space to study (or much needed study breaks) and provide me with unconditional love and support. Most of all, I am thankful that I have found a professional that will remind me every day how much I have to be thankful for.

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I love being active, why don’t I do it more!?!?! ⟩
October 28, 2013, by Ryan

Life Hacks What are OS/OT?

So, I hurt my neck a couple weeks ago. One weekend I dove into a swimming pool, like a fancy diver, and came out of the water with sharp pains shooting down my neck. By the end of the day, I could barely turn my head side to side. I slept flat on my back, waking up every hour in pain if I turned my head while I was sleeping. So, of course, I took advantage of my student health insurance and went to the doctor who gave me a diagnosis of a cervical muscle spasm and prescribed muscle relaxers and physical therapy visits. Well, I tried to make an appointment for PT but couldn’t get in for two weeks!

I had to do something in the meantime, so I put on my occupational therapy hat and thought, ‘What would be best for my body right now?’ Why did I get a muscle spasm in the first place? Is it because I have hunched my shoulders for years whenever I’m stressed? Yes, this definitely could be a contributing factor. Huh, what about exercise?! I am not as active as I used to be. I get so caught up in school and staying on top of my coursework that I quickly take out physical activity. I should know better. Just last year, I was working out three times a week at the gym on campus in the mornings before class, and would share with all of my classmates how much better I felt throughout the day (which includes a lot of sitting in lecture) because of this routine. Also, we have had lectures relating to occupational balance and lifestyle balance, the importance of having a balance between work and play, activities of leisure and activities of importance.

This experience with my neck has reminded me of this importance. I quickly went to the gym the Monday after my neck starting hurting (and after I received my muscle relaxers), and as soon as I did the elliptical (just for 30 minutes, don’t want to go crazy) with some stretching afterwards I felt so much better. And have been continually feeling better! I love working out and being active! I feel so much happier, healthier, and ready to face all the stress that continues to be in my life . . . because I’m in grad school folks! Thank you, occupational therapy, for giving me the tools to look at my life in a better and healthier way!

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