I became an OT first.
What I wanted most from childhood and into my 20’s was to be married and have a family. I went to college as a back-up plan. Becoming an OT has made me a better person and mother. Studying the mental and emotional components of behavior was very broadening for me.
I was 18-years-old when I decided to become an OT. In hindsight, the decision seems correct for my age and experience (many 18-year-olds make decisions based on superficial and somewhat scant experience).
And in hindsight, the circumstances under which I made the decision seem serendipitous. Another girl, a year younger than me, told me about OT. OT was offered at the college I had already selected (only two programs in Texas at the time), and the curriculum in the catalogue was acceptable to me. Between acceptance to Texas Woman’s University and when I arrived to register in fall 1973, I changed my major from home economics to OT. Now, in middle-age, I believe my decisions over life were the result of what my life-path was meant to be.
I will always be an OT, and have an OT frame of reference. I can’t not live a role I took-on and played for so long, any more than I can not be a daughter, sister, aunt, friend, wife, or mother. Since adding-on the role of PT to my life, I have received more (though not a lot) grief and misunderstanding from the OT community than from the PT community. Sigh. Some OTs have given me the feeling that I’m a traitor to the profession. I renege against that attitude as territorial.
I’ve never tried to convince anyone that the two professions be combined or that one is more important than the other, but I am certain that becoming both was right for me. I have learned to talk with OTs without raising their ire, and sometimes, I don’t even tell them I’m a PT. When I do reveal my dual credentials, it most often leads to the next question…..
Why I Became a PT
Still single in 1981, the word ‘career’ became more meaningful in my life. There wasn’t much upward mobility in OT – you were either a staff therapist or a director/manager of a therapist department/clinic. I had been an OT for 4 years, and I wanted more independence in my practice, but did not feel the call, er, felt I wasn’t ready for the administrative leadership required to manage a staff.
I began to explore how to get into ‘private practice’ or owning my own business practice. I was influenced by an OT that I admired and had known for several years. She contracted privately with 3 school districts. In my mind, she was a ‘pioneer’ in private practice in the early ‘80s. She had a master’s degree in special education, was fluent in Spanish, and certified in a specialty test (Ayres Sensory Integration Battery). I knew even then that if I was a public school administrator that I would want her to work in my district. Her sage and influential advice was that I should find a ‘niche’ or specialty practice.
After looking around a bit, I decided to add-on PT to my credentials. Once the decision was made, that’s what I did, feeling very much an inner drive, and divine pull in that direction. I finished my master’s and was licensed in PT in 1985.
Most PTs I’ve met think it’s a tremendous advantage that I am an OT also. Some express that they would like to go back and add-on OT. I know a few people who are dually-certified – there were two other OTs in my PT class. Still, it’s tough to stay up-to-date- on such a broad range of practice. I have made a sincere effort to concentrate on working with children. At the same time, I’ve worked with adults here and there in my career and felt that has been beneficial to my knowledge and expertise also. Most recently, I worked prn (as needed, part-time) at an adult rehab center near my home. There I picked-up a few exercise ideas (tricks), and more personally, I was presented with fodder for thought about how my end-of-life or, hopefully, elderly-years.
And Then a PhD Also
Just one year after finishing my PT degree, I was exploring a PhD program. Again, my circumstances seemed to lend to the process. In 1986, my new husband and I were making plans for our future, and his new assignment as a member of the ROTC cadre at Oregon State University, in Corvallis. He encouraged me, and I looked at both OSU and the University of Oregon for programs that would be meaningful to my career.
Throughout PT school, I heard a constant drumbeat in the form of the message that doctoral-level faculty were desperately needed in the profession. I managed to get my minor in adult education, but at every research opportunity (even to write a paper for a course) I selected topics related to child development or the impact of disability on children and families.
A PhD degree is highly honored in our society – more than I knew when I undertook earning one. Most people appear impressed; when they find out I have a PhD. For a few, I believe meeting me inspired them to pursue graduate education. I believe earning this degree was exactly what God had planned for me.
What I always wanted....
"From childhood, I wanted to be married and have a family."
I got that, too.
Finally, or so it seemed to me at 31-years, I married. Most importantly, my husband and I believe our coming together was through Divine Intervention. Our two children are gifts from God also.
Anticipating a family in the late ‘80s, we were not enamored of the lives we saw other families living. The prospect of a home-life where both parents were employed full-time was not appealing. We learned to live (and save) on one salary. We committed to having only one full-time employed parent after our children were born. For the first 10 years after retiring from the military my husband was a stay-at-home ‘house-husband’ while I was employed full-time. He was very happy in this role, and our family has been a stand-out and source for disbelief among the social groups in which we mingle (church, school, neighborhood).
I am the current ‘primary parent at home’ in my hometown, San Antonio, Texas. Our children are teenagers, and management of family life continues to be as challenging as at any other time in our lives. These days we live like two late-blooming Baby Boomers – still raising children and constantly looking towards ‘retirement’.
All the parts of my life have contributed to my opinions and recommendations for families challenged by the difference of disability or chronic medical problems. I know what it’s like to manage family life in current times and I know what it’s like to feel different from the rest. Taken from literally thousands of patient interactions over 30 years I write and share in this blog something meaningful for you and your children.
