The Journey

I've taken a break from writing, which is a shame in a way - because I have a lot I want to write. There are currently four or five new blog posts circling around in my head that are waiting to be written. They keep pecking away at my brain like ravens, but I have needed a break.

The job market is shit.

There is no other word that adequately describes the dire situation that graduates are now in. There is no hope and there is no comfort. I've been using the time to job hunt as best I can, but I've also mastered my procrastination skills. There isn't a DVD box set I haven't watched, a computer game I haven't played, a room I haven't tidied unnecessarily.

I've also used the time to think about my future.

On Thursday, I have a job interview. The job is for an Occupational Therapy Assistant position at a Forensic Mental Health facility. Before I did my Masters in Professional Writing, I was working in the same role on a Brain Injury Unit at a Neuro-Rehabilitation Hospital. It was a very challenging role in an emotionally demanding environment, and when I left to pursue writing it was with the intention to never go back to Occupational Therapy.

So, the question everyone has been asking me, and the question I am expecting to be asked in my interview is:

"Why are you applying to work in Occupational Therapy when you've just done a Masters in Professional Writing?"

When I was 14 years old, I did work experience at a local primary school. During my time there, I was told by my colleagues that I was a natural teacher. When I was 16, I became fascinated with Psychology and studied it at A-level and for my Undergradate degree. My tutors encouraged me to pursue a career as a Clinical Psychologist. Working at the Royal Hospital for Neuro-Disability as an Occupational Therapy Assistant, my supervisor and my team believed I could be an excellent Occupational Therapist.

I have been good at a lot of the things I have tried to do. There are many things I would not be good at, but I have been lucky enough to find several things where I could be successful.

While I was working at the hospital, I had counselling for work-related stress. I wasn't coping with what I was doing and what was happening around me, and I needed help. One of the things I learnt from this experience was that I did not have a healthy work / life balance. I was working at the hospital, but I was also living there. I hadn't pushed myself to move out, or to make time for my friends, and basically everything revolved around me working at the hospital and being at the hospital all the time. In trying to take care of other people, and taking on the burden of their injuries on myself, I was not looking after myself.

I decided that even though I was good at my job, that it was not what I wanted for myself. I would have been doing it just to be good at something.

So I made a change.

I decided to do something I really enjoyed, just for the fun of it. Something that I never thought I could do realistically and make a career out of it.

I applied to do a Masters in Professional Writing.

It was so much fun, I met so many great people, I accomplished amazing things and I learnt a lot about myself. It was almost therapeutic. One of my tutors told me that I was one of the most promising writers he had seen in years. Another said that I was a "natural broadcaster," and a delight to teach. This positive reinforcement made me realise that I can have both. I can do something that I enjoy, and something that I am good at. I still have a lot to learn, and in the grand scheme of things I'm still very much a novice. But I can have both.

My manager at the hospital already knew this, and I believe she understood my path and my journey much better than I did then. Before I left she gave me a list of books, with one circled:

The Therapeutic Potential of Creative Writing.

And she told me that she believed I had the potential to do whatever I wanted.

I'm not going to even try to claim that I have that much self belief, but what she said has always stuck with me.

I am naturally good at working in an environment where I help others, because the idea of helping others is one that comes naturally to me. If someone asks me for help, I am the kind of person who does it without question. At university my best friend used to find it funny that people always seemed to come up to me and ask me for help, and that I would do it.

She would ask "Do you know that person?"

Shrugging, I would reply "No" as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

But that is the kind of person I am. And even though I chose to do something for myself, I don't want to give that up. I still want to write, but I still want to work in a job where I help people.

And I can do both.

So this is my answer:

I'm applying for an Occupational Therapy Assistant job at a Forensic Mental Health Facility because I believe it will give me the opportunity to work in an environment where I can use my creativity to help others.

Thank you for reading.