June 2003

See also: Parker Student receives Total Solution scholarship

What being a chiropractor means to me

by Brent Perry

As I begin this essay I feel a little odd. It's like some sort of flashback type of dream sponsored by my bachelor/student dietary consumption of not sure how old they are restaurant leftovers. Cut to dream sequence...

I'm standing, wearing all my clothing this time -- thank goodness for that, in the middle of my third grade classroom. The first thing I notice is how much smaller everything seems. And then I notice that Tyne Daly is there, sitting in one of those little chairs, behind one of the equally little people sized desks. Dressed as a judge, she bangs her gavel interrupting nap time for several younger classes. ...

I won't bore you with the details of the trial, once Captain Crunch and Space Ghost walked in the whole thing sort of loses coherence. But when I wake up I remember something about this essay. Something about my having to redo an assignment that I forgot to complete back in grade school and now Tyne and her cartoon character bailiffs are after me. They will invalidate my elementary school certificate of completion, the base upon which all my pursuit of higher education rests, and down will crumble all of my academic accomplishments. (It's like Billy Madison only with no ultra hot teacher -- what a gyp!) And so I begin, "Why I want to be a firefighter/racecar driver/ chiropractor, by Brent Perry." In a way that's exactly what it's like. Only thing is, unlike some of you, I always had to make something up. There was never any profession that really sparked my interest -- nothing that captured my obviously overactive imagination for very long. I changed my major five times during the first two years of my undergraduate career, finally settling in on a Family Studies degree plan with Psychology and Substance Abuse minors. I was going to be a counselor.

I graduated and applied to a Masters program. I made it as far as my interview before the little voice in my head was loud enough for me to hear. "This isn't what I want to do! I'm interested in it, but I have no passion for it."

I was still young and naive enough to believe that it was possible for everyone, even me, to find something that I loved doing, something that I would love doing for the rest of my life. During the next three years as I worked multiple part time jobs, lived in three different states and watched my birthdays pass I began to lose faith.

Until one day, you guessed it, I went to my first chiropractor. Without going into all the details surrounding that experience, suffice it to say I was impressed. And the chiropractor I met was dynamic, hungry for new understanding to allow him to approach his patients in as complete a manner as possible.

I was only able to see him for four visits before I moved back home to Texas, but by that time I was hooked. I had a vision in my head that maybe I could even learn to approach the same people I had met during my undergraduate counseling internships in a new and different manner.

My first chiropractor -- I can't even remember his name now -- drew a triangle on a piece of paper and labeled the sides mechanical, chemical and psychological. He talked about how every person has stresses that fall into these categories and that a complete approach is able to meet the patient's needs on all sides.

I've since learned that wherever this diagram originated, D.D. Palmer was among those who have described this "triad of health." Three weeks after that first chiropractic visit I was looking into schools. Two months later, I began accumulating my prerequisite science courses. I am now a seventh-trimester student at Parker College, attending classes and seeing patients at our outpatient clinics during the week and spending my weekends at seminars, pursuing an ever increasing understanding of human neurology, biochemistry and physiology.

As I walk this path, I am indebted to those who go before me, some of whom are still going. I am grateful for their desire for something more. I applaud their efforts to bring something more to health care. I too want more -- from myself, from my profession, from life. And so I am proud to count myself part of this tradition of healers even if I am only at the beginning of this road.