I have been receiving so many messages about the post I did about my biggest regret from OT school and they have all been so insightful.
Some people regretted working too much or not working enough. Some people regretted doing too many OT things, while others had non-OT responsibilities to attend to outside of class. Some had regrets that they didn’t study or read enough, while others wished they had spent more time doing social things with their classmates.
But while reading each and every comment, my brain got to thinking and I realized something.
We are all on our own OT journey.
From the program we choose to attend to the way we conduct ourselves in class. To the fieldworks we get placed at to the jobs we accept once we graduate. To the CEUs we attend to the speciality certifications we receive. Not to mention the experience we bring to the table even before we start OT school and the things we experience as practitioners.
No one person’s journey is exactly the same and that’s what makes every one of us unique.
We do the best we can given the cards we are dealt. Of course, hindsight is always 20/20 and like I mentioned previously, there are certain things that I wish I would have done differently. But then I sit back and remember that our experience shapes us into the practitioners we become.
If I had chosen to do something differently, my professional lyfe might be vastly different than what it is today.
So as you read or hear about other people’s stories remember that we are all on our own journey. Learn from others, support each other, lift each other up, but never compare your story to someone else’s.
You are special and your journey is yours. Embrace it, all of it… the good and the not so good. Because that is what makes you, you!
So tell me one thing that you wished you could have changed about your OT journey. But rather than tell me why you would have changed it, tell me how it has shaped you into who you are today.
I’ll go first. I wish that I would have done fieldwork in various practice settings, rather than doing 3 of my 4 fieldworks in pediatrics and only one in an adult setting. But clearly, I knew early on that peds was my passion and by having so much experience as a student, it allowed me to quickly and comfortably jump into working as a new grad.
What about you? Share your thoughts in the comments.
