I remember my first day of Chiropractic school like it was yesterday. I was nervous, excited, anxious, happy and shy- all at the same time! A few days before, I had just moved to Minneapolis and started getting familiar with the area (and the USA). I was excited to meet all my new classmates – now colleagues and the faculty, it was all life changing and one of the best changes I have ever gone through. I get a lot of messages from prospective and current students about what Chiropractic school was like and my tips for surviving through it.
It’s totally normal to feel overwhelmed
So many changes and they are all happening at once! There’s so much going on and it’s a challenge to keep up to date with it. There’s going to be times where you will discover that there’s 2 exams scheduled in one day and also 2 assignments due that same day – it happens. Pause, take a deep breath. It’s important to realize, you aren’t alone in this situation, look around you – all of your classmates are going through it! Find healthy ways of dealing with stress even if it means to cry for a couple minutes. Recognize what you are feeling, go through the feeling and then make a plan.
Have a team
Get to know everyone in your class, make a study group, work and play together. If you don’t like groups, find a friend or two in your class to go over the material and help each other out. Once you start your clinical internships, you spend less time together on campus so it’s important to make great solid relationships. A lot of these people will become your lifelong friends!
Find mentors for advice
Connect as much and as often as you can with mentors. Chiropractic school is full of great mentors. Your school may also let you know of other mentors in your hometown and others in the area. During your time in school, it might feel like you can’t see the light at the end of tunnel but trust me- it’s there and it will be here before you know it. Shadow as many Chiropractors and different Chiropractic practices as much as you can so you get a better understanding and vision of how you would like to practice. Plus, you will have so many questions and you can have them answered!
Modify your expectations
Graduate school is very different from Undergrad. Once in awhile you may get a bad grade- and that’s okay. The important thing to do is to get help right away before you fall behind. Sometimes you just need to understand the material in a different way, everyone learns differently. The same applies to adjusting – the more you practice the easier it will be to master it. You can’t expect to be an amazing adjuster after one trimester, it’s just not realistic. Just like with any skill it will take time.
Listen to your faculty
Trust me, I never enjoyed having points taken off in my lab practical in technique classes but once I was shown what I was doing incorrectly, it helped me gain confidence with my technique. Some days you may feel like a particular doctor is picking on you because they don’t like how you are doing an orthopedic test, but they have good intentions behind it. If you do an orthopedic test incorrectly, your physical examination with a patient will be incorrect which may lead to a wrong diagnosis and you will be docked points in licensing board exams (which is much worse than losing 1 point in lab in my opinion).
Get involved
There are various clubs on campus and hundreds of ways to get involved. Since you will be in school for a few more years, make the most of it. Volunteer as much as you can, you never know what connections you might make.
Self care
It’s extremely important to relax and decompress. It sounds much easier than it is because Chiropractic school is equivalent to a full time job and that doesn’t even include all the time it takes to study for classes and complete assignments. But if you keep studying and take no time for yourself, you will burn out. I find having a schedule helped a lot. Every Friday night, I didn’t study. I took time to do things that brought joy in my life. I also took breaks throughout my study sessions to keep me refreshed.
Be confident, optimistic and curious to learn more
At times you may doubt your abilities and even question why you went into Chiropractic school when times get tough, and that’s normal. Develop your own techniques to combat stress. Be confident when you go into an exam and be confident with your answers when you are speaking in a practical exam. Take time to exercises your body and give your body health and nutritious foods. Write in a journal to get your thoughts all out if something is bothering you and practice gratitude.
Be proud of yourself
Sometimes you just need to take a step back and look at how far you have come. It’s not easy to get to where you are today. It took a lot of determination, hard work and sacrifice to get here – I mean look at how many years of college/university you have been in! Your family and friends are so proud of you and you may not know it yet but you definitely will on Graduation day!
