What was in the FedEx package??
Do you remember the movie, “Cast Away”? Tom Hanks played a FedEx worker whose company plane goes down, stranding him on a desert island for years. As he recovers remnants of the wreckage, he opens some of the packages. 
He finds his buddy, “Wilson”, and the ice skate that helps him with that toothache problem (Ptoooooie). But there was that one package that he refused to open.
About a year ago, FedEx ran a commercial that spoofed the movie.
Looking haggard like Hanks did while stranded on the island, the FedEx employee in the commercial finds the home the package was addressed to. He fulfills his duty as a duly sworn employee, personally hand-delivering the box.
He explains to the woman at the door that he was marooned on a deserted island for five years. During that whole time he kept this package and swore he would deliver it to her. She replies, “That’s very admirable…Thank you.”
Before leaving, he asks, “Hey, by the way… what’s in the package?” She opens it and describes the contents, “Oh, a satellite phone, a GPS Locator, a fishing rod, a water purifier, and… some seeds. Just silly stuff.”
In a prior blog post (December 28, ’09) I wrote that life on campus is not the real world. For the most part, students are all in it together, studying with and helping one another to get through. But once you’re gone from there, you realize that your old support system is gone, and you quickly learn that chiropractors live on islands.
The trick is to get off the island (no relation to the “Survivor” reality series). And like the contents of that protected but never opened package, every student ready to graduate, and every DC who struggles has available to them what it takes to “get off the island”. The resources you need for practice success are right at your fingertips.
Hint: It’s not the one with the ice skates.
Comments
Agreed! success in school does not guarentee success in practice. There are many Summa Cum Laude chiropractic students selling insurance! You better have a plan!
Well thank you for dropping in, Dr. MacNamara! A pleasure and an honor! And thanks for your kind comments. Siskel and Ebert, huh? Cast Away was definitely two thumbs up. And so is NGC!!
Well said, Dr. Scherr! But they’re the smartest insurance salesmen out there! Surely not what they had in mind when they applied to chiropractic school. Imagine all those hours spent in labs, spent studying for exams and boards… had they seen their future in a crystal ball, maybe they would have sought out another exit strategy… perhaps something in a FedEx box…
March 3rd, 2010 at 10:52 am
Dr. Saeli :: When it comes to movie reviews, you’re better than Siskel and Ebert! And, you have an unique gift of connecting the dots between analogies and reality.
If there’s one principle I could share with chiropractic students, it’s the one you brought out in this post. Chiropractic students need to realize that being successful in school is entirely different than being successful in the real world.
When they do “get off the island”, they better have a strong inclination on what their next step is. If they utilize AMC’s Right Start program, their next step can be a joy to take instead of a tragedy to remember.
Thanks for another outstanding blog post!