The holidays...yet again I'm sitting by the light of the Christmas tree, grading. I'm thinking about all of my students as they begin preparing to leave for clinical rotations. For some of them, this will be their first foray away from family, friends, and the safety nets they have worked tirelessly to create to help them get to this point. Getting through the didactic part of OT school is hard. It is basically a firehose of information, blasted at you for a year or more. You are working and striving to not only understand the fundamentals of theory and framework but also work diligently to learn how to engage with people. Learning how to see and use yourself as a therapeutic tool. You are learning a craft that at 13 years in, I have nowhere near mastered. You are making lifelong friendships. You are doing all of this and creating a life outside of "OT school". It is so beautiful. It is so hard. It is so much the essence of what we are hoping we bring to our clients' lives. We are putting meaning and purpose into each of our days. This week I will celebrate one of my last crops of former students as they move forward. I will join them virtually for their pinning (at their request). Last week I got to usher the first cohort of my new students into their fieldwork journey. This life is wild y'all. It is the best and most challenging group of people I've ever worked with. If you're a former student reading this, I'm so proud of you. Be there for the students you'll have one day. If you are a colleague, we are almost to the finish line. We can do this. Happy Holidays and blessings on your work! Every step of this journey is the journey.
