Preparing to Begin

Tomorrow I will attend the first of many orientations.  I will meet my classmates and professors for the first time and take the first real steps into the world of an occupational therapy graduate student.  I am anxious.  My mind is filled with all that can happen and go wrong.

All day long I have looked over the material for my first class and wondered, "Do I have what it takes".  Can I do this?  Am I making a mistake by leaving behind my relatively safe life in the work sector and putting undue burdens on myself?  Will I make it? 

I do not know if all graduate students embarking on the same journey as me have these feelings but I am sure that some do.  So, if you don't have these feelings bear with me while I work through this.  For those of us who are overwhelmed at the thought of “what have we gotten ourselves into”, I think we just have to remember that our grad schools chose us.  We were accepted.  Admission personnel believe in us and the least we can do is live up to the potential they saw.

I have decided to post motivational notes on my bulletin board.  Quotes and sayings that will remind of what I am working toward.  Right now I can look up and see a poster that says "keep calm and take a sensory break" and "study hard and be an occupational therapist".  They serve to motivate me to continue doing my best and to remember why I am embarking on this journey.  They remind me that it will take studying and breaks to thrive in OT school.   

Tomorrow, I will wake up and start perhaps the most important journey of my life.  It will seem like so many other days before it, but for me it will be the start of my new life.  I am looking forward to charting my journey on this blog and hopefully giving hope to those of you out there who are feeling what I feel and experiencing the nerves and jitters that I am working with and through.

"And once the storm is over you won't remember how you made it through...you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about." — Haruki Murakami