OT School is NO JOKE!

I finished my last session on Thursday. This has been a very rough session for me. I have had some emotional break downs, some body changes, fear, anxiety, you name it I had it. And to think this is only my second session out of 18. My teachers were really great supporters. They encouraged me and reassured me that I was not alone in what I was feeling. I can thankfully say that it is over. I can breath and give thanks for making it through. When I say last session was ROUGH, IT WAS ROUGH. I'm telling you that I FAILED 2 TEST! I never recall failing a test in my life! Due to some chemical imbalances.....my body went on auto pilot the first half of the session. I left like I was completely losing myself. Then on top of that, my job decided that they are no longer going to work with me on my school schedule. They basically told me that by December I need to decide what I am going to do. School or work? That was a very hard decision because my income is the highest in my household. I was hoping to keep working until January 2015. Sometimes life does not go as planned. I have to be honest with you... I flipped my wig when that happened too. I thought, "I have 4 kids, a house, a husband, and school feels I need to take care of. What am I going to do now? What about insurance for the kids? How are they going to eat?" After talking it over with my teachers and my spouse, I have to put school first. School is for a bigger vision, not just something short term which work would be. I would be leaving at some point anyways. I just do not know what I am going to do about health insurance when the time comes because I have a little baby. Hhhhhh...... I have to let the higher powers take over from here. If someone had told me that I would have this MUCH change in a short 6 week period, I would have never believed them. I have to say again... I am thankful that I made it through. Thankfully in the last two weeks I was able to pull everything back together. I was able to get back to myself. I was able to ace both of my finals on Thursday. The test are very challenging. Because my teacher had questions on there where ALL of the answers were correct, but I had to chose the best answer. Man that was difficult. I still do not know which one was that best answer. I pulled through with B's in both classed. My Theory's and Research classes. In case you were wondering.... in my program you can only get 1 C. Not like I want one. I about flipped my wig when I got B's. One of my amazing teachers told me that when I go for my NBCOT it would not matter if I got an A or B because what matters is that I know the material and I pass. A light bulb went off. He is right. No one really knows my grades but me. My employers won't know. Nothing says I have to have an A to sit for the NBCOT.  So I strive for an A and to learn the material, but if I get a B, I am thankful I was successful because a B is still a success!

Overall... I have to say this over and over again I am thankful that I made it through. I am more amazed with myself as I go through this journey because I keep learning more and more about myself. When I was younger, I thought that by time I would be 30 I would know myself and would be at a point in my life where everything would be smooth sailing. I have found out other wise. I am always changing for the better and I am always willing to learn something new about what this world has in store for me.

I appreciate you for sharing in this journey with me. I am hoping the best for all of you out there!

Occupational Therapy Student 1st session complete!

Yay! I completed my first session and as an OTS yesterday. The final was harder than all of his other exams. I have him again next session so I guess he is showing us what his "real" test will be like. He said that he graded down, which means to make something easier, in this class. He said next class he will be grading up, making something more difficult, to show us how test really our throughout our the of the program. This class was soooo fun and awesome. I am thankful to be in class with the ladies and gentlemen.

My meaning occupation activity that I did knitting, Boy was it difficult  to learn because there are times when you knit and the front and knit in the back. Then my needles came out of all the loops so I have to start over. Even counting the 2 Knit Stitch to 2 Purl Stitch I got confused. I missed counted then tried to fix it by only doing 1 of each stitch. Ha HA HA! That did not go so well. I learned to knot from YouTube. I thought it was a pretty basic tutorial for someone like myself, but then I found myself using other clips on YouTube just to understand what I was supposed to do. I can proudly say that I have completed my cowl and I am trying to figure out how to put my presentation on here for you guys to see.

My next classes are Research and Theory's. I am looking forward to learn more about this amazing field that I have gotten into,

I am hoping the best for all of you out there.

Here are the videos that I made to show my Meaningful Occupation Activity
My my knitting progress

My presentation video

Occuapational Therapy Framework

Good morning friends. It's cracking me up that I am blogging more since I am in school. I was REALLY relaxing when I had no classes over the summer. As week two of school comes to an end, I have been working on writing my first paper on the Occupational Analysis of rock climbing. It was indoor occupation. It was a fun  "Leisure occupation" and my classmate were awesome. It is Leisure according to the Framework because it was a spontaneous activity and only kids Play. I have to admit that I was really scared because the wall was so tall and I would only be supported my a bungee cord attached to another person at the bottom. I was not sure if that other person could hold my weight, etc.,  the list just goes on and on. Ultimately, my lesson was to let go and trust the process. I tell you, the next day I was soooore! My forearms, legs, and shoulders, but a good calorie burn.

Me going up!

These two were taken not to far from the ground. I did make it to the top and rang the bell. Coming back down was the hard part.

Monday is our first exam. It will be over the Framework, History of OT, and Therapeutic Relationships. Dr.Leder said that the test mainly consist of Framework since that is an important aspect of OT. I feel fairly confident about this test. He said that he will post grades the same day. I have attended 3 study groups. Since we like each other so much, we go off on tangents at times. I have to say something pretty load to get back on track. I love the study groups because it allow me to understand things we are learning from class in a different perspective. Our groups have been fairly large 5-10 people. Some people do not like large study groups. My thought is, as long as I'm studying and can look up and ask someone else a question about my concerns then, hey! I'm there. Well, I am going to get back to studying now. 

I am hoping the best for all you our there!

FINALLY GOT PICTURES UP!!!!

After 6 attempts to get my pictures to my email, they finally came through this morning.

 This was our first ice breaker we had before orientation. It was so awesome. We meshed so beautifully. First impressions are very important! This was a great one!

Me in uniform for first day of class/ orientation!

Our brackets we made during orientation to unit us!

I HAVE A NAME!!!!!! and OTS after it!!!! YAY!!!!!! 

Our second ice breaker before orientation!

Lunch after orientation!

Oh and guess what? We have 6 guys in our cohort! Dr. Leader said that this is the first time that they have had this many men in one cohort.

First week of OT school DONE!

This has been such a fun week. This week started off with orientation. We met our teachers for the next 30 months. One thing I like about OT is that you see people from all walks of life in this profession. As my teachers introduced themselves and explained when we would be in their class, I saw the "funny" teacher, the "calm" teacher, the "high energy" teacher, the "monotone" teacher and so on. I really like that OT's do not have one type personality. I love the fact that most of my teachers are still in the working field, they still have a full case load and are full time teachers. It is love when someone can work TWO full time jobs AND are passionate about both of them. We learned that our "journey" is like kayaking(teachers, education and peers) down the Ohio River(journey) where we encounter all kinds of obstacles, but the kayak has what we need to keep moving forward on the journey safely. We also made cohort brackets that was a class building exercise. Most of the people in our class had already met because we had already attended two get togethers to break the ice. After orientation some of us went out for lunch.

The actual lecture started on Tuesday. Our professor, Dr. Leader, is the "funny" teacher. He started us off right! We had our first group presentation on Wednesday. It was something that Dr. Leader did on the spot. He said he had never done this particular group presentation before. Each group had to present different parts of OT history. The catch was, which we did not know until we were going up to present, that our audience was a group of high school students that we had to keep engaged. We all started off rough, but once Dr. Leader showed us that he wanted a "theatrical" presentation, each group got better. Today we ended on OT framework. What I got out from that is that what we do,the framework, is based on how we bill the insurance company so we can get PAID! So I have this in mind, if I am wrong can someone please correct me because I am still learning.... Framework= Billable guidelines! Our first test in next Monday, and we already have 4 days of study groups set. We also delegated class representative.

Then my class went out for lunch again after class. Unfortunately I had to work, so I did not get so go.  I have already seen pictues of the fun they had. They also started a softball team tonight too. They named themselves The Regal Eagles. They went out for diner again after their game. THEEEEEEENNNNNN...... we have made a schedual to start running on the weekends together. I am not a runner soooo we will see how that goes. Right now, we are one big happy family! I am thankful for being here with all these amazing people.This was a great way to kick off my OT education.

I am hoping the best for all of you out there!

P.S
I'm still trying to get the pictures from my phone to my email so I can post them!