My Journey to Becoming an Occupational Therapist
When I was six years old, I became an older sister. I vividly remember the moment my little brother, just 3 days old, was placed into my arms. My heart absolutely swelled with love and I knew in that moment that no matter where life took me, I would be involved with children, specifically babies, in some capacity. Fast forward a few years, I had a family member studying to become a medical doctor. I was in elementary school but flipping through this family members MCAT books I was so intrigued. In middle school, I started to ask my pediatrician questions – do you like your job? How do I become a doctor like you? That’s when I decided I wanted to blend my two loves for medicine and children to become a pediatrician. And so, began the journey.
Throughout middle school and high school I started volunteering and working with this population in various ways. In high school, I attended The National Youth Leadership Forum on Medicine – and by attended, I mean begged my parents to attend this expensive “camp” in Washington, DC in exchange for never asking for anything ever again. Oh teenagers and our dramatics. My parents fully supported my passion and foot the bill for me to attend – forever grateful. It was here that I learned even more about the medical field – and connected with a neonatologist. I learned that there was this whole other world where I could specialize in working with infants as they grew healthy and strong. That was it. That’s exactly what I wanted to do and how I wanted to spend my life. I finally had my answer to “what do you want to be when you grow up”
I started undergraduate school at North Carolina State University – a biological sciences major on the pre-med track. I joined all the pre-med clubs and connected with everyone I could who could help me on this path. And then chemistry happened. If General was a nightmare – Organic was purgatory. I hired a weekly tutor, I spent every moment I could in the library, but I hated it. I genuinely hated it. I started to rethink everything. Did I really want to do this? I would have to spend several years and hundreds of thousands of dollars to pursue this. I remember walking out of my chemistry lab and calling my mom crying. “I don’t think I want to be a doctor anymore” afraid she’d be disappointed, I cried even harder. She stopped me and say “Pray about it. God will lead you. I love you. ” Phew. Moms really just always know exactly what to say.
At the time, I was about 2.5 years into Undergrad and was nannying for an occupational therapist. I had zero idea what her actual job was, but I knew she loved it. We talked after my shift one day about OT – where I learned I could do pediatrics, and even neonatal therapy. And there it was – my dream career. I switched my major to Psychology, fast tracked my way through the rest of the credits and finished in 3.5 years. I applied and was accepted to 3 OT programs. The rest is history.
Unlike some others, I had zero clue what OT was and I only stumbled upon it a few months before I needed to apply. But like so many of us, I really didn’t choose OT – OT chose me. And here I am, 1 year into practice and I couldn’t imagine being in any other profession.
