Inspired again!

I have a confession to make: I love maps. I would like to put it down to being male but maybe it's not as simple as that. When heading into unfamiliar territory, I can't resist buying a map of the region and planning out the best route to each destination. The touristy maps with the little illustations of noteworthy buildings are especially juicy. I feel sorry for people who travel with me because of my reluctance to venture far without my map (or maps) in hand. They also have to deal with my frustration when the map doesn't seem to match up with the surroundings and of course, similarly to following Ikea instructions, it is always the map's fault! Of course, maps are so 20th century. The trusty map is underthreat by GPS and maybe one day, like when I reluctantly converted from buying tapes to buying CD's, I will have to bow to modern technology once again and buy a little machine that speaks to me in a reassuring, yet slightly pompous robotic voice, and in theory, I'll never get lost again. But what's the fun of that? Some of the best experiences come from getting lost - meeting the friendly local who is more than happy to put you back on track or meeting the suspiciously too friendly local who is more than happy to take adavantage of the clueless tourist vibe given off in such situations. For a map geek such as myself, there is nothing more satisfying than getting lost and then finding your way out of the labyrinth without even using a ball of wool. Who needs GPS? (Well, probably me, but I refuse to admit it at the moment!).

Towards the end of my first year of OT school, I got lost. Whatsmore, my map seemed to be lost too. Somewhere between placements, online courses and neuroanatomy, I practically forgot what program I was taking. My OT flame was not burning quite as brightly and I lost track of why I entered into the course to begin with. However, I'm happy to say, I'm inspired once again and excited to be beginning my second and final year. How did this turnaround occur? Well the three weeks of summer holiday might have had something to do with it as it allowed me to step back and reflect. I realised that over the course of the first year, I had developed many questions about the occupational therapy profession but not really found many answers. In discussions with peers, we realised that we had become good at trotting out standard theoretical responses but we were not taking the time to get to the real nitty gritty of issues. It seemed like a raised toilet seat and energy conservation strategies were the answer to everything no matter what the client needs or the diagnosis (of course, when 'meeting the client' consists of reading a case study, it's hard to replicate real life client-centeredness). They say that if you recognise a problem, you are well on the way to resolving it and now that we've chatted about this, I think we can move to the next level and start to become real experts rather than superficial ones. Also, I'm not too detered by this educational confusion as I used to preach to my students that confusion is ok and a necessary part of learning; however, it's one thing to smuggly say this as a teacher - another to accept this with total coolness, calmness and collectedness as a student.

The main reason for the rekindling of my inspiration has been having the good fortunate to listen to a number of preeminent OT gurus in the past week. I heard the first two during the Capstone Conference during which this year's graduates presented their research projects. The two keynote speakers were contrasting in style, but both were equally effective in translating their knowledge. Sue Baptiste talked about aspects of professionalism and Pam Andrews spoke about resilience. I had been watching the Democratic Party's National Convention the night before the conference and had been amused to see the rapturous applause and standing ovations that met every other sentence Hillary uttered. Listening to these two OT champions, I felt like I needed to get on my feet and cheer, wave my OT flag and pump my fist in the air in a victorious manner - but thankfully I controlled myself. The third wave of inspiration came in the form of a former head of our OT department. Having been out of formal teaching for a while, Margaret McCuaig played a cameo role, returning as a guest lecturer at the end of our 'get your minds back into gear after the summer' week. She offered many pearls of wisdom, but one of her parting expressions resonated particularly. Reflecting on her career in OT she said (in full sincerity), "I am just as passionate about this profession now that I'm leaving it as I was when I entered it". This statement definitely marks highly on the inspiration scale as I bet not too many people could genuinely say that about their respective professions. Thanks to these people, I've found my map. I just hope I can hold on to it until around this time next year.