Fighting the Urge to Be Ordinary
"Real leaders are ordinary people with extraordinary determination" -Unknown
We are all born ordinary. We're all genetically the same, more or less. However, not everyone's intentions and drive are the same.
When I was nearing the end of my stay as a respiratory student at Laurel Business Institute in Uniontown, PA, I felt a particular drive that I had not felt before in my life. I had achieved what I had fought so hard for, and my career was just about to start. I wasn't about to screw it up.
I came to the determination that I would milk my degree for all it's worth. Work in respiratory? YES! Write about it? YES! Nag my supervisors to institute protocols and policies that would give me, the therapist, more leeway when it comes to patient care (and let me help write them)? YES!!!!
Prior to enrolling in respiratory school, I led a less than ordinary life. I flunked out of school and didn't really care. I was content working at a grocery store for minimum wage and hanging out with my friends all the time. Simply put, I was a loser.
The 18 month struggle to make my way through respiratory school was the best thing that ever happened to me.
As you students begin your programs, or end them, I implore you to not settle for ordinary. Sure, ordinary is easy. It's no extra work. No extra hassle. Ordinary is 9-5 and most people will settle for it.
However, ordinary doesn't change things. Ordinary doesn't move people.
Ordinary isn't spending extra time with your patients to help their day along. Ordinary isn't giving up a lunch break to stay ahead of your work. Ordinary doesn't go the extra mile to make a difference, no matter how minor it may seem.
So I ask you, the future of the Respiratory Care world, to be extraordinary. Leave school and resolve to be brilliant in your new career. Who knows...maybe the cure for cystic fibrosis is in the mind of one of you, who otherwise would settle for ordinary.
Extraordinary changes the world.