DISCLAIMER: This post was inspired by a priest’s homily for the Palm Sunday mass in Boac Cathedral a few hours earlier. The author does not condone nor endorse Bellarocca and the owners, operators and patrons of this establishment. 

9:30 AM - I sat there in church trying to fight off sleep, trying my hardest to grasp what little fragment of consciousness I had at the time. I had just lasted through an inuman session - my own, which started Friday night and ended Saturday morning without passing out and subsequently falling victim to my friends’ morning after pranks. Next came the painstaking process of commuting to Marinduque by roro - an endeavor that again took one whole night (we started traveling at 6:30 pm last night and arrived home at 4:30 am earlier). Needless to say I needed and still need sleep and there I was trying to resist its downward tug at my eyelids. 

Luckily, the mass celebrant was far removed from worsening my fatigue-induced stupor. He is quite the orator, harboring in his arsenal catchphrases such as “what is the point?”, “ano ang punto”, and “chismis portion tayo ha” but what drove antok out of my system was not his chismis portion aboutLonghino (Gaius Longinus - the centurion who witnessed Jesus’s ascension and was beheaded for speaking out such vision), but rather the part about how popular and crucial that one-eyed Roman soldier is (not was, hopefully) in the province’s Moriones Festival. 

Every self-respecting Marinduqueño who has experienced living a socially appropriate existence in Manila knows how difficult and awkward it is to have to explain to city peers where the heck Marinduque is in the map. We usually do it by citing something the province is known for. While we used to say“Marinduque, yung may Moriones” before, now it’s “Marinduque, yung may Bellarocca.” 

Now let me reiterate that I have nothing against Bellarocca which took the name Elephant Island back when it was yet to be commercialized as it currently is. I, like many people, admire its Santorini-inspired features and am planning to go there and give its infinity pool a try at least once while my body and my wallet can meet the necessary demands. Sadly, that is all there is to it - a fancy Santorini-inspired vacation spot of undeniably high quality but absent elements that make something Marinduqueño. A province so rich in culture becomes limited by association to a place designed after a foreign place. This makes majestic Bellarocca blend in the island of Marinduque like a polar bear would in a desert. 

Father, who is probably in his fifties, also shared how Holy Week was during his time. It was when batteries were removed from wooden radios as strings were from guitars for that silent, Viernes Santo vibe, and was keen to add that Lent was a lot more solemn back in his day.  

Aside from awesomely executed marketing, another thing that probably linked Holy Week to pleasure rather than pain is the people’s evolving tendency to go on a vacation brought by having a higher salary, and the added stress that comes with it. However, Father’s “point” in his sermon is that we uphold the TRUE spirit of Lent which is going to resorts and expos, but the act of sacrificing - not only to get the feel of the season but to improve oneself and resurrect from a darker, less productive shell in the process. 

Once again, there is nothing wrong with trying Bellarocca, but the following are my suggested activities per day of the week for a fuller Semana Santaexperience (many of which I plan to do presently with pictures posted per day):

PALM SUNDAY

• Buy (or better yet make) palaspas, hear mass and have it blessed. Hang it on your door for more blessings until it becomes dry enough to serve its next purpose as ash on your forehead next Lent. 
• Watch Hosana, a procession done by children to houses of (usually affluent) devotees to commemorate Jesus’s arrival in Jerusalem.
• Visit a beach resort near the capital’s (Boac) poblacion as warm up for the days to come. 

HOLY MONDAY

• Watch the sort of compulsory parade of government employees dressed as “Samaritans” (actually just their best impression of Hudyos).
• Visit the Expo by the Boac River (sometimes displayed at the Boac Covered Court). Buy souvenirs and try the food and other perks - as long as you don’t break your Lenten sacrifice(s). 
• Go municipality-hopping to know the five other towns’ (other than the capital) definition of “starting the Moriones Festival with a bang”.

HOLY TUESDAY

• See more of the Expo. Some stalls show their best wares on Tuesday or Wednesday when more tourists would have been in the province already. 
• Take pictures of/with Moryons (the masked centurions; not to be mistaken with Morion, which is the mask itself). There are hot female ones whom you ought to ogle and probably exchange mobile numbers with but then, the Lenten sacrifice.
• Visit a province landmark (e.g. Bathala Cave). It’s important to schedule the landmark visit on this day as the next five are going to be hectic. You might opt not to visit a beach this time, then again if it can’t be helped…
• Hit the beach. Choose a further location from the poblacion.

HOLY WEDNESDAY

• Help in carrying/transporting or dressing/designing (if you’re into that sort of thing) a Holy Week character (e.g. St. Peter, Mary Magdalene, Sta. Veronica) for the first procession day. Of course, it is important to first look for a family with a santo who would willingly accept your help (we have Mary Magdalene for a patron saint, so…).
• Attend the hour-or-so-long procession. Wear comfortable shoes and jabar-proof shirt. Have an exotic drink from a suki Expo vendor ready for rehydration. 
• Watch the Senakulo after the procession. Beware of gay pickpockets and picktrousers. Also prepare for spectators who’ve watched the play a million times who are more than willing to repeat the lines while watching. 
• Get drunk after the Senakulo (again, if your Lenten sacrifice says otherwise, then…).

MAUNDY THURSDAY

• Do a Visita Iglesia-slash-‘Round Marinduque. 
• Hear mass. 
• Contemplate on your sacrifices. Do so while singing the Pasyon.

GOOD FRIDAY

• Watch the Via Crusis, the parade portraying Jesus and the two thieves’ march to Golgotha. Mt. Golgotha is equivalent to the scorching riverside in Boac, Marinduque. 
• Attend the three-hour second day procession. Wear clothes and shoes that are respectively twice as comfy and jabar-proof as that from Wednesday. 
• March with the Santo Entiero (Jesus lying in a tomb), holding its rope and cutting a portion of it after the procession to be kept for good luck. 
• Dine meat-free with the pushers (read: tagatulak) of the saint you helped set up on Wednesday. That is if you did do that chore. Otherwise, dine meat-free and hopefully alcohol-free as well with friends or family. 
• Sing the Pasyon. Use a mic for a more authentic deboto experience. 

BLACK SATURDAY

• Hit the beach. Pick the white sand ones in Sta. Cruz lest you want to bathe in the resorts near the capital with the man who played Jesus Christ and see the waters turn red. 
• Sing more Pasyon. 
• See a Lent-themed movie. Or two. Or three. 

EASTER SUNDAY

• Watch the Pagbati, a dance at dawn portraying the Salubong of Jesus with his Mother Mary.
• Again, given that you did help prop up a Holy Week santo, bring thatsanto back home and have breakfast (dinuguan and beer) with the pushers. Observe aftercare. 
• Witness the Pugutan (beheading of Longhino) in Mogpog. 
• Have a last-minute shopping for souvenirs and other pasalubong.Arrowroot cookies is a requirement, an authentic morion is optional. 

May our polar bears mold into something of better standing against the heat of a desert full of life's challenges. Enjoy the spiritual experience!

In accordance to the 30-day Tumblr challenge I’m doing this month, consider this a make up post for January 4, 2011.

I know this thing I’m about to bring up is so last decade but I remember a time in senior year in high school when Leonardo Da Vinci and his works were being tackled in MAPEH class and the discussion, quite inevitably, veered to the most controversial novel of the time, The Da Vinci Code, specifically the part about Jesus being married to Mary Magdalene.

Naturally, my classmates and the teacher were revolted by the claim. I remember saying “so what?” if Jesus wasn’t actually celibate and a female classmate, a devout Catholic by provincial standards, acted as though I had just picked my nose and from it extracted booger the size of a five-peso coin in front of her. She was quick to fire back something like “pangsira kaya sa reputasyon ng Simbahan yun. Parang sinabing bulaan (liar) ang Simbahan.”

Such attachment to what is conventional and mundane, my friends, is very typical of the secondary level of education and below.

Thank God (no pun intended) there is college because if it weren’t for it, people, including my high school classmates and myself, wouldn’t be more open to different ideas and not be quick to debunk one just because it sounded taboo. One thing is for certain, though. Whatever college and beyond have thought me, my view on religion stays the same as what it was when I raised sixteen different eyebrows in that said MAPEH class. 

Before I get excommunicated and burned at the stake for writing this entry, let me just say that I am a practicing Catholic. I hear mass and take the communion at least once a week, I revere holy feasts and all that, I plan to give my children Christian names, and I sure as hell (again, no pun intended) don’t paint pentagrams on the floor of my apartment with blood of unborn children to summon the devil. I love my religion and acknowledge its importance in my overall well-being. 

Thing is, I believe that I don’t always have to agree with what my religion says. 

Today if I’m not mistaken marks the day of the feast of the Black Nazarene. No offense to devotees but let’s say I am one and I have to go to work today but the local parish priest says I ought to go to Quiapo and pay my respects, should I follow him? It’s the feast of the patron saint of our barangay and all are required to prepare lots of food in their houses for people to visit and eat, should I follow suit if it means blowing half a year’s worth of savings on lechonand caldereta? Would I go to hell if I ate the last can of corn beef in our food storage on Good Friday because I didn’t have money to buy a can of sardines?

I do honor some of the rituals/customs of my religion such as praying before meals, completing the Simbang Gabi, the less demanding ones. I therefore have nothing bad to say about the people who actually do the things I have mentioned in the previous paragraph. If anything, I would commend them for their devotion.

Still, it doesn’t change the fact that there is a difference between religion, an institution or organization of worship and beliefs, and spirituality which describes a higher and to an extent a more personal dedication to a Supreme Being. 

I remember how my mother used to tell me how important religion is and that I should be a religious person. She, to be fair, hears mass and prays the rosary everyday, among other religious duties. My father, on the other hand, while not an antithesis to my mother’s religiousness, doesn’t practice her routines and rituals well, religiously. He has a somewhat different belief system that actually works, for instance, he does not like to hear mass when he is feeling sleepy or angry, as it would allegedly compromise the quality of the experience of attending the Holy Mass. He tells me my mother is right, but that I should be more spiritual than I am religious. 

I think religion is important in such that it serves for one to be spiritual. It should not end in just being religious. That is all I’m trying to say.

Now, if you excuse me, I have to pick my nose again - until booger the size of a ten-peso comes out of it. For a change.

So, it's now 12:45 am on September 29, 2010 and it's been quite a while since I had last written. That was only a few days after I passed the boards and became *tenteneneeeen* an OTRP! A lot has changed since then. For one thing, the I-just-passed-jitters have long since gone and I'm now nearing my first month of work. But before I write about what has changed since that day when I was sipping on a short cafe latte at Starbucks bought using my parents' money to keep my caffeine-laced creative juices running to write that farewell-to-angsty-writing blog, just a couple of disclaimers: 

1. It is not my intention to rouse the ire of doctors, nurses and other professions for that matter. I know I have the knack for doing that unintentionally but I am writing here for a more constructive purpose. 
2. Please excuse my writing if it's become worse. That usually happens when I write something creative after doing only evaluation reports ("[patient] was able to...") for several weeks. 

This entry us for occupational therapy practitioners, students, professors, supervisors, clinic owners, future students (*blink blink*), former students, EVERYONE. 

It's a Tuesday - two days before the official start of my week (as of now, I only work on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays - talk about transitioning from bum OT graduate to hardworking and responsible OTRP), and I was leisurely browsing my Facebook news feed AT HOME (no, we don't have Internet at home, yet but our neighbor has and it's unsecured so...) when I came across this status written by Therese Catanaoan. 

I couldn't help but be reminded so much of how much I used to want to go to med school after graduating from BS OT. Hence the succeeding comment rally and the link about occupational therapy written by a New Zealander if I'm not mistaken that I posted. All of that plus the fact that I've been dying to write anything creative without an OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY INITIAL EVALUATION heading equals a blog of reminiscence and hopefully advocacy. 

So how did I really land in this still developing profession?

Like most great things, it all started with the UPCAT. 

*blurring background*

I had been wanting to take med since forever. Like many old-fashioned Filipinos, I deemed medicine and law the only two courses worthy of taking. I didn't want to follow my father's footsteps so it was med for me. But one cannot become a frog without first being a tadpole (at least that was what I thought before I heard of Intarmed) so I had to decide which pre-med course to take. Because it was the in-demand thing at the time and it follows that only few people get in it therefore I saw it then as a measure of intellect, I put BS Nursing as my first choice. As for my second choice, I did an impossible feat for an adolescent and consulted my dad and he told me to put BS Occupational Therapy, saying that I might get a job as James Yap's therapist should he break his bones and I my ambition to be a doctor (I would later find out that PHYSICAL, not usually occupational therapists do sports rehab), so I did. 

Nine months later, I remember my mother's screams as though she were in labor when she found out that I joined her and my father as Iskolars ng Bayan as a major in surprise, surprise, occupational therapy! While my parents were ecstatic, I on the other hand think it was no big deal at all. Back then, UST was my ideal campus and occupational therapy was (and is) an unknown course so I wouldn't have a lot to brag about aside from that I would be studying in UP the next school year. Once they ask what course, that was when I would: a) ask for a game of DotA if it was a guy; b) ask for a date if it was a girl; and c) politely excuse myself if it was a or b, only forty to sixty years older.

Like most of the people I now call colleagues, I started in college knowing nothing about my course except that it's a rehab science (it's actually a science AND an art) and it may actually be about massage (NOT!). I was comforted by the notion that once I graduate from that awful course, then will start the "real" journey towards becoming an honorable, respected and recognized MD. Little did I know that my supposed pre-med course was one helluva journey in itself. 

With the bratty collegemates, bitchy girlfriends and even bitchier faculty that I used to write about a lot, came the slow and unnoticeable but surely rewarding learning about what occupational therapy is, what occupational therapists do, and whom they work with. With that also came the necessary evil which are Applied Anatomy and Kinesiology (OT-PT 102) and Physiology (PHYSIOLOGY 21). To those in the first semester of their third year in the BS OT program in UP-CAMP, I ask you now to BE STRONG and NEVER THINK YOU'RE DUMB just because you're failing all your exams (whichever is the equivalent grade of "failing" to you). Those were the two things I did not do and instead wallowed in misery and wrote poetry with the blood and cerebrospinal fluid that came out of my nostrils every time I read my notes (I was also an emo kid back then). I actually played the part so well that I even considered shifting to BA Journalism, a pre-law and a friendlier course. I didn't care if my body would end up being covered by the very newspaper articles I authored. With my med school plans going down the drain, I was good as dead anyway. That I would say was the darkest chapter of my occupational quest and that was probably when God took over and decided that OT really was for me. He gave me the presence of mind and the vigilance to study that were absent the whole semester so I could pass the Anat and Physio removal exams (that's 9 units worth of 3.0 for grade conscious readers). After passing, I was still in a state of shock. A void after a storm that accumulated plenty of frustrations and what-now questions. For that, God sent me true friends who either just came or were already there only I didn't notice. I lost my identity so He sent me a role model so great that he's now my mentor and boss at work. I was filled with anxiety so He sent me my source of comfort so awesome that she's now my boss in real life (read: girlfriend). All that drama isn't to say that OT dictated my life or something, rather I made my own decisions, changed a lot of things, yet OT stayed there and waited. 

Come internship, I made sure of two things: 1) the most layman friendly definition of OT (an art and science that aims to improve one's well-being and performance in meaningful activities through engagement in occupations...it's still a work in progress) and 2) the fact that my ambition to become a doctor already broke. But rather than nursing mobilizing James Yap's broken foot, I instead took people like his soon-to-be ex-wife and her eldest son as clients. Internship  seemed like the year when most learning happened but now I know I only felt that way because I was actually doing well, and I have those two years of collecting meager grades from the old CAMP OT Lec, OT Lab, and AVR to thank for that. I didn't exactly breeze through that year but whatever happened then only made me stronger and at least wise enough to realize that MALAKI ANG ETHICS NG OT. After finally graduating, gaining weight, reviewing for the board exams and gaining more weight, I became an Occupational Therapist Registered in the Philippines and the rest is history. 

In retrospect, I wanted to be a doctor because of the honor that comes with it. To be respected. Recognized. Needed. Doesn't OT already allow me to enjoy those privileges? It just depends on the way you look at the professions's uniqueness.

Respect, I would later learn, is something that transcends professions, something you have to earn regardless of what you are and what you do for a living. 

Recognition comes with the fact that occupational therapists are few in the country, especially if you're from a place that has totally never had an OT before, licensed or otherwise - such as the province I hailed from. 

As for being needed...

I applied for two jobs while reviewing for the board exams. I got both before I even passed. Some of us even get invites even before we graduated. Unless I have the connections, it would be pretty difficult for me to pull off that feat if I were an MD, or better yet, one of the 30,000-ish new RNs this year.

I might have helped a handful of senior high school students pick a college course or at least become aware of the existence of my profession last month when I did a small time room to room talk in my high school. I plan to do it again, hopefully in front of a bigger audience, in an organized career symposium. There may be a hundred high school students out there who would make good OTRPs. And those one hundred could provide service for a thousand clients in need. All because you've made these students aware of OT, the need for its services, and of course, how much people would pay for it. 

Ms. Catanaoan raised a concern about OT management seeming so practical to the nonspecialist eye. Sadly, there really are people who view our profession like that and that is why more advocacy is needed. I would like to quote the author of this blog (http://occupationaltherapyotago.wordpress.com/2009/10/17/occupational-therapy-is-just-commonsense-isnt-it/) I've read about OT being "just common sense". If you're not an OT and you happened to hang out in a therapy clinic and think that OT is indeed just common sense, read up:

It’s definitely not just commonsense rather skilled artistry on the behalf of the therapist in getting alongside the person and making the difficult seem achievable.  Just as being well occupied, engaging in a range of satisfying occupations can require careful consideration of the environment, the person and the occupation/task or activity  by the therapist in order to bring it about successfully enabling the  person to experience meaningful engagement and the feelings of wellbeing that go with it.

I know of OTRPs who still are taking med and the advantage they say they have is their being patient-friendly - something a year or so of being an intern had taught them to be. I work with someone who's both and an MD and an OTRP. He's more an OT than a doctor but uses his title for parents to take his recommendations more seriously. Some time ago, he told me and my blockmates during our fieldwork that he wanted to be a developmental pediatrician eventually. His advantage from other dev peds, he said, would be that he knows "how to do the dirty work."

I know an OT who's more a businessman than a therapist and aside from putting up therapy clinics, he makes use of the OT knowledge by considering accessibility, ergonomics, environmental and task factors and other non-common-sensical stuff in his business operations.

 As for me, I still do blogging as you well see and being in my profession never fails to provide me with topics and other potential writing material. Writing, after all, is an occupation too and I can say that I still engage in it IN SPITE of and BECAUSE OF being an occupational therapist. You can even win a Palanca Award with the help of what you experience from handling patients but that honor is something I have yet to achieve. 

So now, I, like I said earlier, am working three times a week. I can now spend my own money for not just a short cafe latte but instead, I'm here in my bed sipping on a cup of Nescafe Intense (earning your own dough DOES makes you reluctant to spend it). I'm going easy on myself not only because I'm transitioning but because I want to make time for my friends whom I didn't get to bond with back in college because of insufficient time, insufficient funds, or both. I remember how some of these friends used to make fun of my course by linking it with the word "autistic" ("OTstic") and doing a dance step similar to that from Soulja Boy as if to depict stereotypic behavior. Well, OT or autistic, look who's earning now. LOL.

LESSON: 

For fellow practitioners: Our profession is the best!

For students who think OT is for them: Congratulations! Let the coming semesters serve as a challenge to your dedication to your course. Just do well and eventually you shall be rewarded. 

For students who are still doubting: At the risk of sounding like I'm forcing you, just go for it and hesitate no more! The course can be toxic but whatever you'd rather be doing (e.g. prescribing medications and referrals instead of inhibiting spasticity, doing photography instead of kinesiology, etc.) occupational therapy is sure to complement whatever endeavor you decide to pursue, so it won't really be a waste of college years taking it.

For high school students and younger: If you are interested in health-related courses, are also artistic/creative, are being told to pursue a lucrative course, or all of the above, then OT might be for you! Even if you don't fall under the three categories mentioned...at least check out the OT course catalog. LOL.

I'm probably sounding more and more sabaw by the sentence (you'll find out later) so let me just wrap up by thanking God for making me want to settle and grow in this profession, and my father for mistaking OT for sports PT and hoping I would end up as James Yap's "OT".

Time check: 4:19 am. So this is why I'm no longer making sense. So much for reminiscing and advocating.

Belated happy birthday to Macky Mendiola (September 1), Ryan Aradanas (September 2), and Paul Reyes and Yssa Lacasamana (September 6).

This is not to resurface an old personal issue (I used to/still get comments from people telling me I'm histrionic), rather just to voice out a realization I derived from a growing national one, that is, the rumored affair between a Presidential sibling and a Vice-Presidential son. Here it is:

Kaplan & Saddock (2007) in their book, Synopsis of Psychiatry: Behavioral Sciences/Clinical Psychiatry, 10th ed., state the more prominent clinical features ofhistrionic personality disorder as follows: 

Persons with histrionic personality disorder show a high degree of attention-seeking behavior. They tend to exaggerate their thoughts and feelings and make everything sound more important than it really is. They display temper tantrums, tears, and accusations when they are not the center of attention or are not receiving praise or approval.

Based on the aforementioned features and my theory, I don't think I fit under histrionic PD at all. If our romantic partners define our personality, with disorder or without, then I'm more grandiose than histrionic. 

And if I still need to explain, that is a very huge compliment to my girlfriend. ;)

8:00am - 8:30am Waited for Teacher Iya at MNHS; Made chismisa...education about OT, etc.

8:31am - 8:40am Walked to Little Stars Preschool

8:41am - 9:00am Went around the preschool; Observed classes and made recommendations as needed

9:01am - 9:10am Walked back to MNHS; Did an informal lecture about BMTs and SIwith the "library teachers" (mga teacher na tambay sa silid aklatan)

9:11am - 9:20am Walked to Kusina sa Plaza

9:21am - 10:00am Merienda at Kusina sa Plaza c/o Teacher Iya (yey!) plus chikaha...discussion about OT and other matters (read: town gossip) with the Kusina sa Plaza bigshots (It really warms my heart that they know about OT and recognize its need and the province's lack of knowledge about the profession.)

10:01am - 10:02am Walked to SSS (which was just across the street from KSP)

10:02am - 10:45am Registered for SSS membership; Met a PTRP and active member of Marinduqueño Mandin who works there (Why he works in a setting totally unrelated to OT, I haven't asked)

10:46am - 10:50am Walked to PhilHealth

10:51am - 11:05am Waited to be entertained at PhilHealth (I didn't mind the wait, though. The place was airconditioned and it has at least 3 people from Murallon under its employ so I belonged.)

11:06am - 11:10am Had to walk to my mom's office at DTI because I didn't have money from the application

11:11am - 11:15am Courtesy call at DTI (read: Asking P300 from my mom and receiving congratulations and compliments such as "ang taba mo na!" from her colleagues.)

11:16am - 11:35am Application for PhilHealth

11:36am - 11:40am Walked back to DTI to give my mom her change (she gave me P500 and application was for P300)

11:41am - 11:55am Walked to MNHS while having to pass through a horde of students who had just finished taking their periodical tests

11:56am - 12:10pm Courtesy call with former teachers at MNHS; Endured jokes of libre and losing my cool over further misconceptions about OT (Whoever did a Leonardo Di Caprio and planted false thoughts into people's minds about PTs and OTs being synonymous to massage therapists ought to be hanged by their genitals and burned at the stake.)

12:11pm - 12:40pm Felt like a good kuya and decided to wait for my sister to finish cleaning their classroom after the exam (to think I used to skip those chores back in high school); Had another informal lecture about OT, PT and SP and SI and other OT interventions

12:41pm - 1:00pm Walked home and missed our dad who was supposed to fetch us at school, subsequently making him cranky for lunch

1:01pm - 1:30pm Lunch plus aftercare

1:31pm - 1:35pm Received reminder from Jasmine to call GOALS to ask about our schedule for next week; Was asked by the secretary of GOALS The Fort to call at 2pm

1:36pm - 2:00pm Watched Inglorious Basterds with my dad while Facebooking/Twittering (I've watched the movie the fourth time that day but I just can't get over the Tarantino gorefest; Diane Kruger was charming and Brad Pitt cool with his mustache and thick American accent and his attempts at imitating Vito Corleone.)

2:01pm - 2:10pm Called GOALS again but our employer still had a patient so the secretary offered to just call me once he's available (close na kami ni ate); Resumed with Facebooking

2:11pm - 2:15pm Was called by GOALS and was informed of the schedule at last

2:16pm - 3:00pm Finished the movie

3:01pm - 3:15pm Changed clothes (dugyot na kasi) and went to the Barangay Hall to get clearance for Pag-Ibig

3:16pm - 4:15pm Decided to take pictures around Poblacion and MNHS (feeling turista)

4:16pm - 4:20pm Hitched with Kuya Matt's motorcycle back to Murallon and conserved a few calories in the process

4:21pm - 5:10pm Merienda while watching Iron Man 2 with Gabby

5:11pm - 5:30pm Changed clothes (AGAIN! Sorry, it's just that changing clothes more than once is so not me.) and took a shortcut with my lolo to attend a doctor's wake nearby

5:31pm - 6:15pm Offered condolences to the bereaved and had an early dinner at the place; Discussed OT and did networking with the doctors at the wake (Apparently there are doctors who did not know that OT and SP exist. At least they know that PTs don't just do massage.)

6:16pm - 6:20pm Walked back home

6:21pm - 7:30pm Light dinner

7:31pm - 12:20am Fell asleep ahead of schedule

12:21am - 12:40am Transfered pictures to laptop

12:41am - 1:40am Wrote this DAR (Daily Activity Record)-inspired blog

1:41am - Zzzzzz...

Happy Birthday to Dom Maling! Next attraction: RTR in MNHS to promote OT (Thursday and Friday).

1. (+) SALARY. Mukhang pera na kung mukhang pera. Let he/she who is without sin cast the first stone.


2. (-) Internet connection at home.


3. A phone with six hours of battery life in standby mode.


4. A laptop with crappy graphic specs, 30-minute battery life and low overheating threshold.


5. An atrophying social life due to lack of resources.


6. Too many absences in concerts of favorite foreign artists/bands.


7. A prehistoric wardrobe that needs upgrading.


8. The need for a fabulous outfit to better represent myself at the oath-taking in September.


9. The need to make up for certain people who were part of my OTRP success (read: libre).


10. An earlier professional momentum.

1. I DO need a break.


2. There was no summer vacation 2010 to speak of.


3. My next real break will be forty years from now and it's called retirement.


4. A good transition reinforces competence.


5. An atrophying social life due to lack of time.


6. To minimize future absences due to burnout/sickness.


7. To curb this materialistic mentality that's lately being encouraged by external events.


8. The need for a clearer mind and more passionate soul to better represent myself at the oath-taking in September.


9. I already made arrangements to start working in September.


10. I'm spending two weeks in Marinduque starting next week.

MONEY AND TIME

1. I am a CAMPer.


2. I've extended my opportunities for social interaction to people from private schools at the very least. I no longer wrinkle my nose at the sight of them.


3. My girlfriend is a CAMPer from Zobel.


4. There is such a thing as inflation and the price of pandesal isn't what it used to be.


5. I've had a change of image from emo to something else (just judge me) some two years ago ergo I had to overhaul my wardrobe.


6. I've gotten fatter, too. Small sizes don't fit me anymore and medium is starting to feel tight.


7. The last two items I'd like to believe are only part of growing up (pun intended).

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION VERSUS PROFESSIONALISM AND CODE OF ETHICS

WHAT NOW?

Mentee 1

• UP BSOT 2010, Dean's Lister


• Top 3, July 2010 Licensure Exam


• Best Student Occupational Therapist (2010)


• Clinical Proficiency Award in Pediatrics, OT Section, PGH-Department of Rehabilitation Medicine (2010)


• Consistent Dean's Lister; n-time College/University Scholar, UP-CAMP (2006-2010)

Mentee 2

• UP BSOT 2010, Dean's Lister


• UP-CAMP Student Leader of the Year (2010)


• Leadership Award, OT Section, PGH-Department or Rehabilitation Medicine (2010)


• Public Relations Officer, CAMP Student Council, A.Y. 2007-2008


• Vice-Chairperson, CAMP Student Council, A.Y. 2008-2009


• Consistent Dean's Lister; n-time College/University Scholar, UP-CAMP (2006-2010)

Mentee 3

• UP BSOT 2010


• Bolero Award, OT Section, PGH-Department of Rehabilitation Medicine (2010)

1. [Therapist A] was RR in [CTS] Pedia. Now he's the SP to go in [a public hospital]. Soon he'll be the chief SP.


2. During her internship year, [Therapist B] was told that she didn't look like she knew what she was doing. She is now the most sought after SP in geria cases AND she's in [a private hospital].


3. [Therapist C] had to repeat Neuro[anatomy]. Now he's a CS in [a pedia clinic].


4. [Therapist D] had to repeat Ana[tomy]. Now she's an instructor for the SP Department and a CS in [a pedia clinic].

Point: don't be pressured. Those are just titles and their significance will fade away as time goes by. You'll have all the time/chances/opprotunities

 in the world to get your own titles anyway.

PLANS OF ACTION

• To balance time and money - Time management. Ano pa nga ba? And friends to engage in leisure with. Who's game?


• To decrease feelings of inadequacy - Continuing education. Attend as many seminars as temporally and financially possible. Ask money from parents while work has yet to start (LOL). Read journals and evidence-based practice.


• Look for "real" bowties at Crazy Eddie's, Landmark and Greenbelt (thanks, Marest and Ma'am Carina!). Everyone is still free to suggest other places where I can find a real, knottable bowtie for the oath-taking.


• Practice the ethical principle of justice (malaki pa rin talaga ang ethics ko!) and maximize each treatment session with each client. Use the compensation (read: salary) for clothes, gadgets and other items to satisfy personal and initially deprived needs.


• Pray. Confidence and faith in God helped me cope before I took the boards. Why should life after the boards be any different?

1. I read a similar imaginary showdown from my little brother's latest issue of K-Zone;


2. I'm currently reading Marvel Civil War and Iron Man is one of the key characters of this series;


3. This is part of my attempts to keep myself distracted from the board exam results anxiety I'm feeling; but


4. I'm too lazy to write something long and read-worthy. I've been feeling that way for quite a while now.

Source: http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/3900000/Batman-dc-comics-3975161-1024-768.jpg

Source: http://skew.dailyskew.com/uploaded_images/iron-man-civil-war-captain-america-shield-753272.jpg