Blog Posting 7

 Hi, everyone! Hope you have all had a great week and weekend. My new occupation of ASL has been a bit of a struggle, in all honestly. This past weekend I caught a bug from my nieces, so with being sick my motivation for doing basically anything school-related has been pretty low. Outside of this past week, I do feel like I have somewhat started to find some flow in my new occupation. However, I still am only learning the basics. The interactive app that I downloaded has definitely been the most beneficial for my learning of ASL, because I get immediate feedback on whether I am doing the signs correctly or not. Honestly, my favorite part of my new occupation has been learning about the history of the deaf culture and the hard of hearing community. Even though I do think that this aspect of my new occupation is important, I have been a little disappointed with my progression. As I stated in previous weeks, I find myself overwhelmed with how much there is to know about ASL in order to be proficient and fluent. I think that in order to counter these feelings, I have been taking each week little by little and step by step and slowly building a foundation for my new occupation to be successful. These little steps I have been taking have been encouraging, and I do feel that I am starting to get a better grasp on ASL and the deaf community. 

I think that in terms of my new occupation and its influence on my ongoing identity formation, it is helping me to form a more complete picture of who I want to be in the profession of occupational therapy. As an OT, I want to be able to do all that I can to communicate, work with, and include all types of patients. I think that without a doubt we will encounter patients and family members who use ASL to communicate, so my pursuit of this occupation was to improve my skills and abilities as an OT. When I think about my use of ASL in the future, I hope to be able to communicate with my patients easily, so it has definitely put some pressure on my goals. 

As I read the article from this past week, I realized how much I and those around me rely on society to help shape our identity. This concept honestly has made me feel a little sad, because I wish that we all didn't care as much as we do what others think of us. I know that for me personally, I definitely bounce off a different reflection of myself to society rather than to just me. With society and with those around me, I definitely try to show myself as outgoing and happy as possible. I spoke about this with my LTD group, and I feel like many of us put on this "mask" in order to present ourselves in a certain way and to gain approval. Within myself, I do feel as if I am outgoing and happy. However, this is definitely emphasized when working with others. While I recognize that I do care about what others think of me, I also realized that I do quite a lot of things for just me. I am a pretty intrinsically motivated person, and engage in a lot of activities simply because I want to or like to. However, I always hope that those activities I engage in are viewed as acceptable by others. I think that in pursuit of my new occupation, I am not sure how much the way that my "I" perceives my "me" has shifted. My "I", the part that is doing the experiencing, thinking, and acting, and the "me" holds the attitude toward myself in this new occupation. I think that my "me" definitely feels a little out of place in my new occupation, and my "I" is still trying to find its place in ASL and the deaf community.