Why OT is the career for me- a telling of how an unknown profession became a passion

In high school, I was on the business and marketing route. One of my teachers had it engraved into my mind that I was going to rock the sales world and that I would achieve a lot through this career path. This teacher told me he saw me making six figures for the rest of my life, solely on my ability that I could convince anyone to do whatever I needed them to do or think. So why not go into sales and make big bucks by simply convincing huge businesses that they needed my product and that it would be the best out there for their company? It seemed pretty simple. That was it, I had decided my future in a matter of a couple of months and had teachers backing me saying how successful I would be. Most of my family has careers in business, including my mother, brother, and step-father all being CPAs. It wouldn’t be until halfway through my high school career that I realized that the business world was not for me. I was devastated when I was not able to be in Marketing 2 due to not having my seventh period available for work study. It was during this time that I decided to reevaluate what exactly I wanted to study in college. I had plenty of time to plan it out and discover new things. One of my friends had told me about students in the special education department needing tutoring. I decided that I would then give up my study hall to work with the students in that classroom. I remember tutoring a student in math and what seemed very simple to me was really challenging to him. I had to adapt my teaching methods to how this student learned. I started using visual items to explain problems, such as blocks or even candy. Over time, I started finding myself looking up different ways to teach different problems in case he did not understand one way. I really enjoyed my time in the special education department and even started finding myself going into the classroom on my personal lunch period to hang out with the students. I started researching career paths that interacted with the special needs community and highly considered becoming a special education teacher. I then came across Occupational Therapy. Like many, it was foreign to me. What is it? Why is it called Occupational? At the time, I thought the word “occupation” meant job but boy was I completely wrong. I would soon discover the joy of Occupational Therapy. Throughout my time in college, I gained so much experience through shadowing. When I first learned about the profession, my passion was with geriatrics. I had never really been that big on kids through my teenage years. However, when I started my job at Grizzlies Preparatory School that all changed. I grew to love kids and their ability to stay positive through challenges that they faced. As of right now, I am hoping my fieldworks will help me decide which path to take.