This is the first of several personal statements I will be submitting to graduate schools in the next couple of weeks.  This one is a statement that I’m submitting via a centralized application service that will distribute this to three of the schools I am applying to (University of Washington, University of Puget Sound, and Boston University).  If you see any errors don’t tell me!

At the age of 34 I finally said “enough”.  I had spent my working life in jobs that didn’t feel right, that didn’t match any definitions I had for myself, that paid the bills but didn’t feed any sense of purpose.  Despite the continual increases in pay and title my life never felt more secure or important.

When I was finally ready to recognize and accept these truths I had the daunting task of choosing a path that fulfilled my lofty new goals of personal achievement and a meaningful contribution to society.  The closest I had come to this combination was when I volunteered.  I knew that I wanted a career in which I would come home most days feeling the same way I felt when I would finish a day of volunteer work (invigorated, challenged, and purposeful) and didn’t cause me to impatiently count the days until retirement.

My history of volunteer work gave me a list of potential areas to pursue.  I was actually more discouraged by the work to narrow down my list to one path as opposed to not knowing where to start!

In the end it was my volunteer work with children and teens with disabilities that drove my attention toward Occupational Therapy.  My volunteer work with these amazing kids brought about positive aspects in my personality that I had rarely seen before.  In addition to feeling invigorated, challenged and purposeful I also felt patient.  Up until my time with these great kids I would never have described myself as patient, but suddenly they were not only making me fall in love with them but I was also finding a new characteristic to love in myself.

I looked at the job postings for these organizations that I had been volunteering at and discovered a job title I had never heard before: Occupational Therapist.  I looked it up on the internet and the definition was not simple.  The path to become an Occupational Therapist was straight forward, but the paths that you could take after being licensed were diverse and plentiful.  Yet despite the potentially overwhelming list of options, the key and universal terms that inspired me the most were “independence” and “quality of life”.

Even though my initial discovery of Occupational Therapy was as a result of my work with children and teens, I have since discovered many potential areas that I would love to apply the therapeutic skills that I have begun to acquire through my recent internships and those that I will acquire more fully in a Master’s program.  To be honest I cannot define my long-term professional goals in any precise manner as there are so many areas that I am anxious to explore and experience over the coming years.

I have spent the last six months volunteering in a multi-disciplinary pediatric clinic, and this experience has sparked an interest in perhaps one day owning my own clinic.  While at this clinic I have learned about the benefits of sound therapy combined with balance, attention and coordination activities, which has sparked an interest in the connections between directed neural activity and physical capability.  Additionally I have volunteered for the last several weeks in a skilled nursing facility shadowing a therapist that helps people recovering from illness or surgery to regain their previous level of independence – either through exercise, adaptive tools, or both.  My previous career involved software testing and implementation, therefore the potential for Occupational Therapists to develop software solutions to support independence and learning is also on the list of applications to investigate.  I have had a lot of experience with dogs in volunteer work and when I owned a pet supply company, and this experience inspires me to learn about animal-assisted therapy.  I am also addicted to travel, and the idea of spending time in developing nations providing therapeutic services would combine two great loves for me.

I am enthusiastic about what the acquisition of a Master’s degree in Occupational Therapy may bring into my life and what it will allow me to bring to the lives of others.  I recognize that this path will be difficult and require a high level of commitment and stamina to achieve.  While I am frustrated that it took me so long to discover this passion and that I spent so many years in careers that did not inspire me, I am thankful that the memory of my “former life” will continue to remind me that hard work combined with great purpose is the equation for a fulfilling life!

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