My grandpa eats his lunch at the local senior center where he lives. One day while visiting and joining my grandparents for lunch, I noticed an elderly man with dementia sitting alone. He had a vacant expression on his face. After we were finished eating, my grandpa got up and grabbed the basket that they collected name tags in. He walked over to the man and told him, in his cantankerous style, that it was his job today to collect the name tags. He helped the man up and escorted him around the tables showing him how to do it. Several months later, on another visit, we dined at the senior center again. I recognized the elderly man, although this time he had a spark of life in his eyes and now he looked genuinely happy. At the end of the …show more content…
This act of kindness convinced me that occupational therapy is an overlooked service. It is greatly needed, but many people are not aware of its existence.
Our entire lives are a collection of minute jobs. If these small tasks are difficult, life becomes challenging and often painful. When a disease, illness, or disability causes everyday jobs to become exhaustive chores, life itself becomes trying and hard to manage. Occupational therapy is vital for those people, and often for their families as well. Occupational therapy provides a service that improves a person’s quality of life.
Many experiences have steered me to choose occupational therapy as my career. One of the best reasons to choose occupational therapy is to have the opportunity to help people in a truly meaningful way. I love that occupational therapy focuses on the small pieces that make up the whole – the little challenges that make up a quality of life. One of the best aspects of doing occupational therapy is the visible growth you are able to see in patients; it is both inspiring and rewarding. I have aspired to become an occupational therapist since I was fourteen years old. Since then, I have sought out every opportunity I could to volunteer or be in contact with occupational therapists and their