My “Why?”
My most frequently asked question is “Why did you decide to become a chiropractor?” The short answer, “To help people.” The longer answer starts way back in elementary school.
From about the third grade until my junior year of high school I wanted to be an archaeologist, but as my interests changed so did my plans for the future. When I started college I had plans to go to medical school to become an MD, but the more I thought about it the more the “Western model of medicine” didn’t sit well with me. Now, don’t get me wrong, there is a time and a place for medications and surgery, but that is not what I wanted to spend my life doing. So, I started to consider becoming a physical therapist. Around this same time I was dealing with a shoulder injury related to overuse from playing volleyball (Fun Fact: I played volleyball at Allen Community College for two years, Go Red Devils!). This injury landed me in PT and so I got to see first-hand what being a physical therapist would look like. My physical therapists were great, but I began to see that they didn’t have as much autonomy as I wanted for myself. This is when I decided to look into chiropractic.
That day I reached out to a chiropractor to see if I could shadow them. What really stuck with me from that experience was the variety of people that she was helping. The patients that day ranged from a little league baseball pitcher to a man in his 90s. Then, I spent the summer interning with another a chiropractor. He saw patients of all ages, from all walks of life. Though both chiropractors practiced differently they were both improving the quality of life of every person that walked through their doors. I wanted to be able to to the same.
My first visit to a chiropractor was a few years prior to this. I started experiencing some low back pain right in the middle of high school volleyball season. I couldn’t bend forward, I couldn’t stand up straight, and I couldn’t move very quickly (raise your hand if you’ve been there). This made playing volleyball pretty difficult. I tried to tough it out through a practice, but my coach wouldn’t let that slide and made me sit out. If I remember correctly, my mom made an appointment with the local chiropractor for that afternoon. After my visit, my pain was almost completely gone and I was back to practice the next day. Throughout the remainder of my high school athletic career I would go to the chiropractor as needed, usually when my low back or my shoulder became aggravated. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t a very good patient. I never did my exercises and only scheduled an appointment when I was experiencing pain. If only I knew then what I know now.
Now, when I think back to my days as a high school and collegiate athlete, I firmly believe that I would have performed better and recovered faster had I gone to my chiropractor more frequently (and followed his recommendations). This is why I love working with athletes (of all ages). This is why I love educating people about chiropractic.
