All Good Things Must Come to an End?
Isn’t that how the saying goes?
As I begin to see, feel and smell the onset of fall in Western New York, I reflect on another summer coming to end in Western New York, and it reminds me that another wonderful thing in my life will also soon be coming to an end. This something is not only vastly important to me, it has forever changed the very center of my being and altered my entire course in life. I would not be who and what I am today if I had never walked through the doors of the Finger Lakes School of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine in Seneca Falls, NY (aka, New York Chiropractic College).
Eleven years ago, I made one of the biggest decisions in my life and I decided to quit my lucrative, yet soul-sucking career as a software engineer and return to school to study Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine. It’s no surprise that many people in my life were shocked, some angry, and almost all thought it was a terrible and irresponsible decision to leave a stable and high paying career to venture off into the unknown. But I was born into an environment of practicality and that’s where I remained until the day I entered the AOM program at the Finger Lakes School of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine. I knew from the moment I stepped into the school at open house, which coincidentally fell on my 31st birthday, that I was exactly where I was meant to be on that day. I registered and entered the program in the fall of 2008.
Now I am not an overly emotional person by nature, but I can tell you that there were many times during my days as a student that I was literally moved to tears by the sheer caring and compassionate nature of people who are or seek to be holistic health care practitioners. These are people who TRULY want to help other human beings. It was and is a totally different environment from that in which I spent the first 32 years of my life. For the first time in my life, I finally felt like I had found “my people”.
I LOVED studying and being a student, and being in and around the faculty at the school. I hung onto every word my professors spoke and I was so in awe of them: all amazing healers, so caring, so wise.. I wanted to be just like every single one of them. I was actually sad when it was time to graduate because I loved being surrounded by such amazing people and going out into practice by myself meant that I would lose touch with all that. I tried to stay at the school and consistently offered to help out or assistant teach, and I applied to every job opening that came up within the acupuncture school… but nothing panned out.. they officially threw me out of the nest, and so I worked hard and diligently on growing a successful private practice, and I had succeeded through much blood, sweat and tears. I loved being in private practice, but I missed that connection with other AOM practitioners, and I missed learning from practitioners much wiser than I. It is easy to stagnate when you are not learning consistently.
Two years ago (six years after graduation), I had to contact the dean of the school for an issue regarding continuing education credits and at the time, I had again mentioned that I was always interested in any part-time positions that came up.. and what do you know? A position for a clinical supervisor was opening up. I applied, and FINALLY I was hired! FINALLY!!!!!!!!!! I was ecstatic.
I began my new endeavor of supervising student clinicians in one of the campus health centers. I had no idea how I would do, but I was excited to try and I loved being back in the academic world. I got to relearn things that I had gotten rusty at or long forgotten, and I got to see some of my favorite faculty members again! Plus I was working part-time, which meant I could run my practice on some days and teach on other days. What a great balance!
I think it was maybe a few short months later when the college dropped the bomb of all bombs… they were not going to accept any more acupuncture students the following year and the plan was to “teach out” the students who had already enrolled. Initially, they talked of “change”, but the first thing they did was to cut budgets and terminate employment of the three most longstanding and most skilled professors. Once it became clear that “change” was not actually the plan, more professors left and moved on to more stable employment, and with only one year left to go, there are only a small number of us faculty left to “teach out” the very last acupuncture class that will likely exist at the Finger Lakes School of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine in Seneca Falls, NY. Most of us are part-time adjunct faculty, and while I am confident in my skills and knowledge and consider myself extremely good at what I do, I know I am still no where near the caliber of the faculty that once taught the students there.
I never thought, in a million years, that I would be on that sinking ship. Life is a crazy ride!! A part of me is honored to be able to see through a program that took such a huge part of making me who I am today, but at the same time, it is heart-breaking to see it go and to know that it will not be there to make such an impact on others’ lives. This field is such an immense pleasure to be a part of; it is literally a warm hug in a sea of cold shoulders that is the current state of medicine in this country. It will go on and so will we all.. Chinese medicine has been around for roughly 5000 years, and it will continue on long past its lifespan at the Finger Lakes School of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine. Many good things have come from my return to the college, and I will stay to the bitter end.. because.. all good things must come to an end? Hopefully not. Hopefully just this once.
