After being in chiropractic college for nearly two years, I have heard multiple great chiropractors tell me, “You didn’t choose chiropractic…chiropractic chose you.” Sure, everybody has two hands, but can everyone’s hands do what ours can do? No. Can everyone relate to a patient like we do? No. So yes, we as chiropractors, are a special breed.
So, as I sit here and ponder, “did I choose chiropractic or did chiropractic choose me,” I think back to my very first experience with a chiropractor. It was Thanksgiving Day, and my mom had gone from being completely mobile to barely being able to get up off the couch due to extreme lower back pain. This was an issue, you see, because the next day was the family tradition of the girls only shopping day, known to the rest of the country as Black Friday. My aunt decided to call her neighbor, who was a chiropractor, and see if he would be willing to help my mom. That night I drove my mom to the chiropractor and helped her into the office. I witnessed my first chiropractic miracle; my mom went from being assisted into the office to being able to walk out on her own with minimal pain, and the next day we shopped until we dropped.
It was that night that I decided I wanted to be a chiropractor. I had never had an adjustment in my life, but I saw the miracle with my own two eyes and knew it was for me. That spring I attended an open house at Cleveland University-Kansas City, and fell in love all over again. It just so happened, or maybe it was fate, that the university in my hometown, Emporia (Kan.) State University (ESU), had just signed on to do a concurrent program with Cleveland. I attended ESU my first three years, and then transferred to Cleveland, continuing to work towards my bachelor’s degree, while concurrently working towards my Doctor of Chiropractic (D.C.) degree. It was not until my last year at ESU that I actually received a chiropractic adjustment. After looking back at how I got where I am today, almost halfway to my D.C. degree, I would have to say chiropractic most definitely chose me, I just listened to my intuition.
