School and Finance

First time writing to my blog audience. I am a little nervous and...just kidding. Check out my website at http://www.fnchiropractic.com

I will let you know that I will post probably lengthy items on this site and, since this is a new addition, this blog will undergo many changes until I see something that suits my taste(s). Colors, gadgets, pictures, layout, you-name-its. There will be changes. The daily journal of today, yesterday and the future will remain the same. I say daily, but I really will not write daily unless I lose use of my legs and somehow get chained to a computer and someone holds a gun to my head and I am forced to write endlessly.

This morning at 6am I joined my new men's group and we discussed prayer and the beginning of the book of James to about verse 18 or 19. What was pretty good was the fact that we actually discussed much of the application of the book to our daily lives. I go to this other group and its okay to have the interaction of other brothers, but there are so many of us that things seem to be a bit off track. Also in the second group, we'll go over a book (last was John 12) and then the discussion will mostly be back to prayer request items or something not even related to what was read. For me as a bookworm and textbook idiot and one who has trouble with small-talk, this is aggravating. So, anyway, this morning was timely, educating, and a somewhat enjoyable sociable time. Once I got over the part of waking up so early that my eyes hurt anyway.
Right now, you know how God says that you have dominion over your circumstance and the animals and all that stuff? Well, I'm kind of scared when I sit at my desk lately because of an encounter I had with a scorpion. It was my first scorpion after being in AZ almost three years. The thing was large. LARGE. I didn't know it, but after some research, I found that anything over two inches is considered somewhat of a size around here. I also found the type was the hurtful kind of stinging type. So now, I keep looking down around my shoes about every three and a half minutes or so. I used to even take my shoes off in the office. Ummm, what's that smell? I have dominion over creation and can't get over a big-little scorpion.

Today I've been sitting here with little to no patients and doing all sorts of things. While playing my Nintendo DS I was thinking about my education and the cost and what it took to go through nearly ten years of school. It sometimes gets to me that it cost over $120k to get to be a chiropractor. Its crazy and its been a subject in my head quite a bit lately for some reason. Its the past and the past is passed, you know?
So, anyway. Today I remembered some of the beginnings of my education. After high school where I graduated I think at like #15 or something out of somewhere in the area of 400 people, I had to figure out going to school or not going. I decided to forego the immediate enrollment and give it a wait and pretty much felt that would be good. Wanted to just kick back and watch some waves roll in and play it easy until I had solid footing on a destination in scholastic stuff. Or maybe I just wanted to be lazy. I don't really know.
I received notice of acceptance in the University of Colorado system and they already had loans and all that stuff lined up and everything. When I got the notices, I told my parents that I wasn't going and would hold off. It was a kind of stand-off in the front living room area between me and my parents. It was kind of like, "No I'm not. Yes you are. No I'm not, yes you are". Probably should have tried it long enough so they could forget what the subject was and I could go and eat dinner peacefully. But that didn't happen. Here's what happened.
The front living room had a layout consisting of an upright piano, leafed waist-high end table, a kind of loveseat thing, hutch, sofa and matching antique Chippendale coffee table (mom's favorite). There may have been a couple other items, I know there were spider plants and fern and stuff. The house was a two level with a split and basement and three car garage so that front room was a fair size and the place was nice for entertaining or for two families to live in. Well the go-to-school argument was getting heated. No one would back down. My dad decided to end it by physically attacking me not realizing the fact that I had already been lifting for over five years and was probably the strongest bodybuilder in the immediate area of Moller Central. I don't remember exactly, but I think this has only happened twice between us and this was one of the two times. I basically picked him up and threw him flat on his back --- right onto my mom's favorite piece of Chippendale coffee table on the planet. You know the guy living in a van down by the river (SNL Chris Farley)? That table and my dad should have been aired over the tube. It was crazy. The legs on the thing went four out flat, a plant went careening and I took off for my basement abode. I laugh now, but I left quickly since I was more afraid of my mom than I had ever been of my dad.
I guess they won the battle. I don't really know. They fought as if I were about to give up a full-ride scholarship and new shoes. But I started in the CU system that semester. Here's the funny thing about it all. We had a disagreement about my schooling but it was never discussed about how to pay for it. The most finance ever discussed was in having this Woodmen of the World rep. come over to set me up on an education fund (smart thinking - I was already 18) and my mom taking me aside and saying this: "I don't care what you do and I don't care what it costs, you get your education." That was it. Good financial reasoning. So they didn't care the cost, but then how was that going to be picked up? You think they paid for it? Are you kidding?

For some reason I had this thing embedded into me that I had to get the education and don't worry about the money. My family, I'd say was and still is basically poor were it not for my grandma. My dad pissed away a nice living and many potential investments and they are now aging and moved in with my grandma, "to better take care of her". The parents did pick up a couple very small doodads during my education but never grasped the larger picture. Both of them had educations paid for -- by their parents.
I'm not lamenting going all the way through the system to get my degree. Chiropractic has done so many things for me that can never be matched by any other profession on earth. I've been able to see so many lives touched in so many ways that it brings me to tearing up when I think about all the great things. I do wish that I had thought about the finance.
School costs a lot. It costs even more when you don't see the cash changing hands and you're running scared with the thoughts of your mom coming after you if you don't get that diploma at any cost.

Then the getting out part. I was lost. I had nowhere to go, no finance to rely on and no established doctor friend and no rich relatives in the field or any of that to get me ahead. Had to start with nothing, couldn't get a loan because of so much debt and other chiros out there wanted to pay not even enough for me to pay basic bills if I were employed. I beat the trees down trying to find anything and, hopefully not work a second job, and found nothing. I was very fortunate to find a couple gems out there who helped me greatly. In retrospect I should have moved to a state which had already established great pay in chiropractic. My ex-wife wanted to move to Tulsa so that is where I eventually stayed and started up on credit and my bare knuckles. It was pretty tough. I know -- sob,sob.

Here's the thing. Financially, I would be far better off now if I had become a career bartender or salesman or janitor of HVAC guy or you name it. Thats because, when I get on my feet, I can be pretty smart on the move-up. I figure things out and have had many business ventures which have all been generally successful. Shoulda, coulda, woulda. When I think on these things I remember not to shoulda myself.

If you have kids, please plan early and make healthy and wise investments. Sometimes we lose everything and there is no choice. Just don't lose everything because of being blind to dumb junk. In most circumstances, there is a choice to go greater and stay from the lesser. If your an adult, think about who is paying and, if you are paying, what is the true finance behind when you get out. I had a choice and was following the man and orders when I was actually the one in charge of posting the orders. Was too stupid to realize that. I didn't go to be a doctor thinking about how wealthy it would make me, but rather how much the profession had actually done for me physically and that I would like to be one to share the message. On the other side, it really does cost a lot and, if you don't have it, you cannot fake it before you make it. You break it before you make it. In our society today, a professional must be and do and live in certain circumstance to be recognized and attract clients and just to make a living. There is something expected and that costs a lot. I'm not talking about "keeping up with the Joneses". I'm talking about the associated costs of something as simple as your continued education and licenses and fees and tons of other stuff that people do not even realize until your chest deep. Shoot, I'm lucky that I'm now in Arizona and status quo seems to be only dress pants and a polo. Think I may head to Hawaii and see if shorts and sandals are acceptable.
Also you need to consider the types of pressure that your own business and mental coupled with physical stress does to you in a day to day grind. I'm sorry, but when you take a break, a short trip to get a Dairy Queen sundae is not rewarding enough to justify what you are going through. Your buddies are all heading for a resort and an extended weekend. When you get back you are somewhat refreshed. Then you're looking for the next mountain to climb.