I love school.  I love sharp pencils and blank notebooks just waiting to be written on.  I used to love the promise of September, of a new school year with new projects and new challenges.  I have eight years of post-secondary education under my belt, and I would happily go back for more if I thought my busy life could juggle it.  But that’s not in the cards for me in the foreseeable future, so for now, continuing education seminars are the “school” that meets that need.

I attended one such seminar this past weekend.  It was the Royal College of Chiropractic Sports Sciences annual conference.  Quite the title, no?  I’ve been to this conference before, and I love it every year.  This year’s theme was “Train Smarter,” and we listened to wonderful presenters like Mark Rippetoe, Christian Thibaudeau, and Dr. Andreo Spina talk about training, performance, and movement.  Two days of bliss, where I could sit with my sharpened pencil and my new notebook and soak up new ways of thinking and new forms of inspiration

But you know what was the best part?  You guessed it, it was the people.  It was being called “Ash” and saying “remember when?”, seeing classmates I haven’t seen in years and spending time with like-minded colleagues.  It was a sense of belonging in a very male-dominated field and a shared interest in all things sport and athlete and treatment and research.  I love my job and my patients and my hands-on practice, and it is events like these that keep me motivated to continually improve, to learn more, to question more, to master more, to progress more.

It was a good weekend.