September 2004

What being a chiropractor means to me

by Moses Sarah Smith

I am a chiropractic warrior. Being a chiropractor means to me that I am a soldier of health. It is my calling and destiny to spread the word of hope and health. To explain to as many people as I can that life is synonymous with vitality and vibrancy. Sickness and suffering are not inevitable. There is a higher standard of existence that is waiting for them through chiropractic. Until my last breath, it is my mission to reach as many people as humanly possible.

While shopping recently I ran into a recent Northwestern Chiropractic graduate. While catching up with her, she relayed that she is not actually practicing. She is a licensed chiropractor, graduated eight months ago and is now working as a pharmacy‑tech, dispensing medications to people 40 hours a week.

As we continued chatting, she confided that she did not believe that she could make it on her own, and could make more money with better benefits doing this, than as a chiropractic associate.

I almost threw up.

Working in a pharmacy? Is she a Pharmopractor? Doctor of Pharmopractic?

It can be a tough world out there for new graduates, certainly I don't want to fail. But there is a world of difference between someone like me who believes that I can hit the ground running, and those who don't even know that is an option for them. Total Solution needs people like me who can bring this message back to the students here. Our profession cannot afford to have our graduates working in pharmacies. We need to save our students. We need to save chiropractors.

Just knowing that there are programs available like Total Solution, can be a beacon of light for students. When we are in school drowning in required pelvic exams and vena punctures, it's important to know that the World Chiropractic Alliance (WCA) remembers us. Groups like the Student World Chiropractic Alliance (SWCA) carry us through when there seems like no sense to what we are learning here. It is so important that these opportunities are made available to students to teach them the truth about chiropractic.

It is especially ironic that earlier that week I had just gotten done converting a pharmacist who is a faculty member here, to chiropractic philosophy. He had never been talked to about chiropractic. Now he is getting himself and his family checked for subluxation. It feels like I won a battle, and then lost a chiropractor.

Can you imagine how many new people this pharmopractor could have brought to chiropractic in the eight months that she has been working as a pharmacy‑tech? I drool just thinking about being unleashed from school, going out into the public, but while in school, it is just as important to make a difference here.

Being a chiropractor is a gift from a higher power. It means to me that I have been bestowed the responsibility of outreach. Not only to the world of subluxated people, but to those in our profession. Unfortunately some of them need it the most. It is a great honor to be that missing link that can set forth momentum toward healing. To be a catalyst in this revolution of health is a privilege I have just begun to understand.

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