One tenet that I try to live by is the idea that a person should give of themselves  freely in most situations as long as this giving brings no harm. There are many situations where we are asked to decide whether or not to be nice, whether or not to listen, whether or not to let someone go ahead of us or put ourselves first. 

Following the tenet of giving freely in situations where it is free to give, these decisions are simplified and more or less made for you. 

This is a good question. It is best to start with a definition of philosophy. The word philosophy comes from the Greek, which literally means the love of wisdom. So, true philosophy is to love wisdom, grow in wisdom, and apply this wisdom in the context of school (your case), and work. When you do this, you will become a better person. There are two reasons for this. When you love wisdom, then you tend to use your mind more. When you do this, you will be able to make better decisions, rational decisions, rather than decisions based on fear, anger or pain. Secondly, wisdom will enable you to see through the many false things in our world, such as materialism, sexism, and a whole host of other lies. Based on these points, philosophy will even help you in the area of occupational therapy, because it will teach you to work hard and be fair.