Why I Chose Occupational Therapy

My We The People congressional debate team. I was captain over constitutional theory... yes, I was a nerd, if you couldn't tell, I'm in the back row with my eyes closed. Through an odd stroke of fate, U.S. Congressman Shelly Berkley (pictured in the front row) went on to become the Chief Executive Officer and Senior Provost of Touro University Nevada where I study Occupational Therapy.

My high school required 2 science courses; by the end of my junior year, I had taken 4. If not for the incompatibility between my Senior math class and 2 other science courses I had my eye on, it would have been 6. I was a geek, there is no other way to say it... except for maybe nerd, dork, or perhaps genius. Okay, definitely not genius. I knew I wanted to be a biomechanical engineer. I felt it in my bones. I could use my love for science, my aptitude for math, and my passion to help others in one career, but as I walked into college calculus the first day of my Freshman year of college, something shifted. 

My Senior picture

I could tell you the exact moment it happened in fact. Monday morning at 8 am. I entered a room filled with approximately 50 people, 48 were white males. There was one other female, a woman of color no less. The otherness we emanated was immediately palpable. I have never experienced a greater culture shock before or since that moment (and I’ve lived abroad… in Asia). Steam laced with testosterone seemed to rise from the tops of my colleagues’ heads reminding me that I did not quite fit. Was it my gender or was it my personality and values? Truthfully, I feel that they are so intertwined within my personhood that I could not say, but regardless, I trudged through the semester silently flailing into the depths of despair. My drowning was internal, unrecognized from the outside. With my sole female peer, we remained steadfast throughout the entire semester. I could have gone on, I could have persisted in my engineering path, but it was during that first semester that I realized science and math without humanity was empty. 

Throughout my undergraduate education, I toyed with the idea of entering healthcare, but I felt rudderless, flailing through the wind and tides. I had been so certain of my future and academic path, and after just one semester the dream was thrashed. Instead of deciding recklessly, I made it a mission to re-center myself, and figure out where I could find the soul. It was a spiritual experience as I explored the depths of humanity. Ultimately, I studied literature primarily of oppressed peoples. I supplemented my English degree with a minor in Sociology, helping me make sense of the readings I delved into. Here, a core value emerged from the deep crevices of my soul: I had to be in a field that advocated for and served those less privileged than I. 

My undergrad pictures often contain a book, computer...or both

With an English degree, one thing is certain: you will go to graduate school. I toyed with the idea of going to law school as my fellow English majors all seemed to do, and yet something never quite felt right. While I may not have fit in to the soulless Engineer crowd, I certainly reeked of a certain level of science geek that law school just seemed to human-y to endure. I wrestled with the conundrum for nearly a decade as I stayed home with babies, then toddlers, and finally elementary-aged children. In order to reorient myself into the world of academia, I intensified my search into who I was, what I valued, and where I fit. Occupational therapy found me. 

Two people in my circle were OTs, and they seemed so intelligent and alive. They both adored their careers and felt invigorated by them. They had science, passion, and humanity. Having never heard of occupational therapy before this time, I researched in a way that only fellow English majors quite understand. There it was, OT, my calling, my destiny. It was a place where, according to the words of Jessica Kensky, “Science, creativity, and compassion collide.” The moment of my spiritual clarity came full circle when, having already been accepted into OT school, I heard one of my favorite childhood church songs “I’ll Walk With You” by Reid N. Nibley and Carol Lynn Pearson. I was reminded of long-forgotten lyrics that as a child, I deeply identified with. The moment I heard them again, an otherworldly buzz overcame me. I found myself shaking in a déjà vu spirit realm wherein I glimpsed my true self, my true purpose. It was in that moment I realized that I was always meant to be an OT; it had just taken a journey for me to figure it out. To this day, the simple children’s song brings me to tears and keeps me going through the complexities of my chosen profession: 

If you don't walk as most people do,

Some people walk away from you,

But I won't! I won't!

If you don't talk as most people do,

Some people talk and laugh at you,

But I won't! I won't!

I'll walk with you. I'll talk with you.

That's how I'll show my love for you.

It is through occupational therapy that I walk with or for those who have disabilities in order to learn from them as well as to help and to advocate on their behalf. This is how I show my love. This is how I show my humanity.

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