anxiety + enthusiasm + overzealousness = productive OT?

Mix all the ingredients above and you get how I feel right now. There is so much I want to do in occupational therapy! I'm really excited that I have a venue to direct my life's work.
Here's some of the idea swarming around in my head:

• Get Frank Kronenburg and maybe Jane Dressler or Dr. Richardson on Oprah to talk about OT--to do this I may need signatures or testimonials from my cohorts to make the case. Anyone know how to get on Oprah? 
• Program development in the Developmental Pathways for Kids (DPK) model--this combines sensory integration AND integrated play groups (IPGs)--in SF or east bay
• Curriculum development in schools that have integrated classrooms (classes with children with special needs) to have IPGs. 
• Write letters to help programs that help people with disabilities the services they need to thrive.
• Get people from school involved in going to talk to our legislators
• Start an adaptive equipment rental or for cheap service. I would do this by collecting partially  adaptive equipment such as reachers, wheelchairs, walkers, AFOs, etc. from flee markets, wall-greens, and clients, and recycle them by giving them to those who need them. 

With only two more months, my time at school is running out. I want to be able to utilize my network of professors and students to help me in accomplishing my goals. I have to tell myself that if I don't get everything done before I start work, I can refer back on this blog when I want to add another project to my plate. I'm so anxious that I won't get the support I need for future projects later when my cohorts are working. As for my instructors, i'm afraid they will forget who I am, or I won't be a priority since I'm no longer a student.

Occupational Justice

My favorite class this semester is Occupation Justice. I realized that I can combine other disciplines that I've studied before into my budding career, such as sociology and social work. Occupational justice is a higher level of occupational therapy. It is a avenue of OT that allows for program development and bringing OT to under severed populations. As Rachel Thibeault (2006), a Canadian OT, discusses about helping people, "we try to find a way to meaning, balance, and justice. I chose occupational therapy because it blends science and humanism, intellectual rigour and compassion." I have the same view.

In regards to Occupational justice, Ot is a "relationship between people's dignified and meaningful participation in daily life and their experience of health, well-being, and quality of life" (Kronenberg & Pollard, 2005).

>>a side note, I realized I've been totally conditioned to cite my sources. I have to do it for everything I turn in at school, so it's become a habit.

I would love to incorporate this aspect of OT into my life-long career. I don't want to forget that. I'm afraid of getting wrapped up in a 9-5 job when I graduate and forgetting how much I loved this topic. I have high hopes of transforming the world.

Initial ramblings

I often have ideas that come to me about the process of graduate school and fulfilling my dream of becoming an Occupational Therapist (OT).

Today I was thinking that going from year one of grad school to year two reminds me of when I was in elementary school switching from one grade to the next. You learn so much in one single year, felt so much growth and transformation that it's like your a little kid again. Last year when the class ahead of us was having graduation and fieldwork meetings with facility I thought wow they get to graduate soon. Now I'm in that position they were in a year ago. Wow, I'm now one of the big kids. I get to fill out forms, applications, and deal with the bureaucracy of graduation that lays ahead of me.

A quote that caught my attention today is that "OTs provide healthy habits by replacing the destructive ones" --in relation to mental health.

I'm looking forward to documenting this process and progress. I feel so much is changing in me as a developing person. I know there is more growth to occur, so even though I wish I started this earlier, I still have a lot of change to process.