At the moment, my confidence is just about holding up so I don’t have many words of wisdom to dispense but I thought I would use this instalment to update you on what’s going on.

I can’t remember how but the film Monsters University crossed my mind again recently and it’s like my biopic! Most of you will know that I study occupational therapy. I guess when I think about it, I am like Mike in film who had a long term passion for what he wanted to do and in my case to pursue the study of the importance of meaningful activity in your life which the profession of occupational therapy is based on with the hope of helping others to do the same.

However, also, like Mike, I have now had several conversations with occupational therapists that I have come across on placements who have implied that I don’t have the skills that would be expected of an occupational therapist in terms of communication and observation.

I guess I tried to have some of Mike’s positivity and determination to keep working hard at what I am doing and proving that I am worthy of the place that I was given and that worked for me for a while and I have seen some small improvements. In reality, even though it’s hard to think about, I do in part agree with the point that there are some skills that can’t be taught like how to come across as natural in conversations with new people and being able retain all the important information from observing patients. However, at this moment in time, I’m in a dilemma where I can’t see what else I could and want to do and I know that I am still relatively early on in my training so I haven’t had the chance to fully develop my skills in an OT context yet.

I don’t know if this story will have the happy ending like Mike had yet as I’m still thinking through everything in my head but I hope that in the not too distant future that there will be something that turns everything around and what I should do next will become clear.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I will hope to bring you some better news soon!

Until next time

Kathryn