Personal Narrative: Transitioning Into Occupational Therapy

Transitioning into occupational therapy from what I am used to is going to be a challenge as there is a lot of information that I need to know before I can practice. One professional behavior that I believe I am doing correctly or will be doing currently is that I am a hard worker. I honestly take pride in this as I believe this is an excellent value to have as a person. I admire people who have a superb work ethic and I have always thought I want to be the person that nobody can say is lazy. When I was a child, one of my best friends said I was lazy because I was not very active and play sports like she did. It hurt me so much that I had to break the friendship off and I vowed to never be considered that again. I would have to say that her

criticism of me helped shape me into the person I am today. Ever since I was sixteen years old, I worked a job, went to school, and did extracurricular activities.

My grandparents, the ones who raised me, pushed this behavior into me from an early age. They never gave me anything that I did not earn. For example, they bought my first car but I had to pay them back in a payment plan system until I paid it off. Also, I was the sole payer of my car insurance and this is one of the reasons I obtained my job as soon as I could. Throughout college, I have multitasked and juggled my school work and job as it is something that I must do to survive most of my family want me to do it myself or are not in a financially stable situation to assist me. Sometimes it is frustrating to see students whose parents help pay their rent, gas, or car payment, but I am certain that coming from this type of family will benefit me in the long run. I want people to view me as somebody to look up to and if they view my hard work as a good value, it would please me to no end. Another professional behavior that I deem is a good aspect of me is my timeliness. I despise being late and if I believe that I will be late, I feel physically sick. One of my biggest fear is that

I
will sleep through my alarm clock.

So my strategy is that I have four alarm clocks. I have one alarm clock that is battery operated, one that is electrical, and two on my phone. My worry is that if the power goes out the other ones will still be there to wake me and vice versa. If I am going to a place that I have not ever been, I will allow for “accidentally getting lost” time. This usually is forty-five minutes of extra time that I could use if I needed it. For instance, for my interview I never before drove to Oak Ridge. I got there almost an hour before my interview time and I waited in my car for the extra time. The extra time was perfect though as it helped calm my nerves. One behavior that I am weak in is time management. I know it must be very ironic that I am good in timeliness, but bad in time management, however; it is entirely true. I do get my homework done in time yet I do not do have it done when I want it to be done. I wish that I could fix this although sometimes it is just not my fault. I feel that I need more time to get some things done and I try to work on it in the order of the deadlines. I need to become more productive within my time because I know I do not use it as effectively as it could be used. I get distracted easily and I can lose track of what I was actually doing when I return. I can go to the store for index cards and spend three hours doing shopping and errands that I find to do while I am out in town. I, also, believe I need to improve on

verbal communication. Sometimes, I feel that I understand the material that a group of people is talking about, but I cannot eloquently convey my message. My speech seems somewhat inferior and I do not use the “fancy” words that I wish to use to sound better. I feel that I become nervous and I forget how to pronounce harder to say words, but if I could write it down it would be perfect. Speech has always been one of my downfalls as I have somewhat of a speech impediment that I cannot for the life of me shake. As a child, I had twenty letters with problems in my speech therapy and now it just leaves one. R is the letter that I have trouble with the most. I can say it at the beginning of words and at the ends, but sometimes in the middle is difficult. I am very self-conscious of this and feel it makes me sound unintelligent.