Remembering Why I Became an Acupuncturist

I worked in a veterinary clinic for years and loved the pace and the fact that there was always something new going on. I loved learning. But being a veterinary receptionist was a high stress, low pay job. In fact, the best want ad I ever saw for a clinic was, “Lousy pay, lousy work, lousy hours. If you’re still interested, apply at…” So much truth.

I moved over to library work, where I could get full-time hours, less stress, and higher pay (which will tell all librarians exactly the low pay scale of the average veterinary receptionist). But it was dull. And I ran into an acupuncturist.

At the same time, I had a boss tell me I was insensitive. I’d been in therapy for being over sensitive so that didn’t make sense. It just made sense that sort of middle management wasn’t for me. And I loved medicine. So I applied and got accepted to acupuncture school, which felt like nothing more than jumping off a cliff into the unknown.

But I worked as a practitioner for fifteen years before we left Washington. I was writing by then and didn’t bother to transfer my license to the states we moved to. I doubt I’ll go back, but it was a good fifteen years. I remain licensed in Washington largely because I worked hard for that so I keep it up, though I haven’t practiced in long enough that I wouldn’t trust myself with needles.

By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this. This information is given in the interest of transparency and to comply with EU laws regarding the collecting of information. My contact form does collect this information, however I do not use it other than to respond to inquiries and comments via that form. The comment forms on any posts on the blog also collect information. Again, I do not use this other than to respond to inquiries and questions. I do use a third party security plugin that collects information on IP addresses so they can scan for malicious users and bots. To my knowledge they do not use this information in any other way, nor do they sell this information to other users.

Close