I have easily 32 plus reasons for going to occupational therapy school and wanting to being an occupational therapist, but for some reason when I am asked "why?" I blank. Maybe its because so many past experiences have lead me here that choosing just one is borderline impossible. After putting much thought into it I think I can map out a few specific "whys". Here goes...
As a child I struggled in school. Reading and spelling were foreign to me even at the young age of six. I have one very clear memory of sitting in a spelling test in second grade, the word we were asked to spell was “are”. I sat in my seat, tears welling in my eyes because I was so frustrated that I couldn’t spell such a simple word. Not long after this I was taken in for hours of testing and at eight years old I found this confusing and irritating. The verdict was dysgraphia, a learning disability that affects an individual's processing when writing and spelling words.
At the time of my diagnosis I knew I was different. I knew school was harder for me than the other children, and I knew that I needed tutoring. I even attended a special class offered by the Texas school system, “Multisensory Teaching Approach” or MTA. At times, I felt moronic because writing a sentence was still challenging to me in the fourth grade. Even today in OT school I still struggle with remnants of dysgraphia. I find when writing essays, research proposals, emails, and blogs I need to read and reread in order to check my work. I think the process of overcoming my learning disability has made me a more compassionate and patient with those around me. This lead me into an undergraduate degree in Recreation Therapy.
Since beginning my undergraduate program, I was involved in the community through various camps, practicums and extensive out of class work. It is during those out of class opportunities that I have been able to apply some of the techniques I learned in coping with my learning disability to being a better therapist. The most stand out experiences came from a week long camp facilitated completely by university students called Camp Koinonia or Camp K. I was part of this camp for three years of college, working as a counselor, an activities coordinator, and finally a head counselor. 
This camp changed me. I fell head over heels in love this working with special populations. I was able to work on objectives in activities of daily living with my campers, specifically self care. Application of my own struggles was easy in this setting for me. When she got frustrated because a task needed to be repeated several times I understood why, she knew it was a simple task but just could not get it done the way it needed to be done. When my camper friend was finally successful in completing a task we celebrated. Even if it was only a high-five, we both knew that she was one step closer to reaching an overall goal. For me personally that high-five, the interaction and the genuine knowledge that we both felt accomplished was like winning an award.
The chance to learn more about becoming the best therapist I can be is something I wake up every morning ready to work for. The reason why I choose occupational therapy is really pretty simple; I relate to it personally, I aspire to use it to help individuals like myself and I feel happy when I am able to help celebrate the small victories others achieve.
