I decided in high school that I knew what I wanted to do with my life and what I wanted to go to school for in college. When people would ask me what my plan was, I would receive sympathy smiles and unresponsive nods. Not many people know what an Occupational Therapist is. Around the time of my high school graduation all of my family members and adults in my life started to ask me “Do you know what you wanna do with your life?” or “Are you gonna go to college?” and I would gush and explain everything that I wanted to accomplish. I would say I am going to attend the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and major in Kinesiology.
After this short introduction of my plans, I had already lost most people’s attention because of their ignorance. Then came the first round of oblivious questions such as, “Oh... that’s nice. What is Kinesiology?” I would explain that Kinesiology is the study of the mechanics of body movements. After that explanation, there were still many faces of confusion because they had no clue what I would accomplish with this major. I would excitingly go on to say that after I graduate I want to attend graduate school for Occupational Therapy. Next, they would say, “Is that like physical therapy?”, and I would laugh and nod while explaining all of the differences.
Every time I had to explain the difference it would hurt my feelings a little bit, even though I had not accomplished any of my goals yet and did not really have the right to be upset. Occupational Therapists perform a form of therapy for those recuperating from a physical or mental illness that encourages rehabilitation through the performance of activities required in daily life. For my Kinesiology 101 class, I have already been required to do some observational hours. While observing an Occupational Therapist, I learned that I am so excited to go into this profession. I have also learned that it is so underrated. While I was observing, even the OT’s patients were not aware that she was an OT and not a physical therapist. The patients would ask me if I was observing her for a class and I would reply yes. I would say that it was for a Kinesiology class and that I wanted to be an OT. After a few minutes of thinking the patients would ask the OT, “Are you an Occupational Therapist or a Physical Therapist?” or “What is the difference in PT and OT?”. As sweet as she was and how well at her job she was, not even her own patients that she saw weekly were aware that she was an Occupational Therapist.
Occupational Therapists take more psychology classes than Physical Therapists because their work is more on a mental level and has more to do with perspective than pure physical force. This is why more people need to know what my major is. Physical Therapists are well known, yet a majority of the world does not know about Occupational Therapists and how they help people every single day.
