I didn't always know I wanted to be a chiropractor. I wasn't born into a family with a long line of chiropractic doctors, and I didn't have my first adjustment until after I started chiropractic school.  I'd be lying if I said that I chose chiropractic as my profession. Instead, Chiropractic chose me. It chose me because of my superpower: my disability.

 Before I was born, the amnion of the sac I was developing in partially tore. This created bands of scar tissue inside the sac. Those bands wrapped around my hands and strangled them, so my hands look and function differently. The bands also restricted my spacial room in utero. That lack of space forced my right foot to curl under my body, creating a club foot and a twisting effect on my spine.  The medical term for my condition is called Amniotic Band Syndrome.

 As a child, I had multiple castings, braces, and surgeries on my hands and foot, until after enduring over a dozen surgeries, I was cleared to live a "normal" life at age 12 – but life was anything but normal. Although my hands and foot had been corrected from a medical standpoint, I was still having complaints. I had a sharp pain in my right foot every time I ran, and the range of motion in my foot was severely compromised. 

As I got older, I started to think about healthcare as a career choice. I considered pursuing pharmacy, but after working in a pharmacy during college, I realized that pharmaceuticals did not solve the cause of the patient's problem because health does not come in a pill. I discovered chiropractic through a friend, and, as I wanted the people around me to feel healthier rather than medicated, I decided to become a chiropractor. Read more about my story here.