To be a dentist, one has to pay dues along the path towards those three capital letters. One form in which these dues come is full removable prosthodontics, more specifically full dentures. There are lots of things, which I enjoy in life (great sunrise, ice cream, FVC prep on # 3, etc. However, setting teeth is NOT one of them. Thus, my Tuesday mornings are not the best of times.
To aid the already wonderful day, which thus far consisted of waking up 15 min before class starts (also known as afro day, referring to my cranial pelage), forgetting to mount my mandibular model cast, only 3 instructors were present, instead of the usual 7. To put this into perspective, there are 85 of us, and none know what the heck we are doing. The scenery reminded me of a bird mating ritual, as 30 some students attempted to gather attention of a row instructor to review their work.
Finally getting through a half-assed job of setting a full Max arch, I packed my things and headed to the end-of-the-quarter PhD journal club meeting, which was more of a "how you doing" meeting. As the current program director is retiring and passing on the torch to someone else, the T32 NIH grant expiring at the end of year, and a major revamping of the curriculum, I stand with little more than a somewhat clear idea what my research project will be. I still have no idea how I am going to fit in my 3rd and final lab rotation while basically working full time in the clinic, not to mention the grad courses, which start next year as well. All I can do now, though, is to keep seeing the big picture - no matter what, I will graduate...eventually.
On this note, I bid you adieu until tomorrow.
-Because I can.
The road seemed longest in my second year of dental school. It is certainly a forbidding task to get all the "requirements" completed. Personally I hated lab work, and disliked prosthodontics. I knew I wanted to go into Pediatric Dentistry, so all this "other stuff" seemed designed exclusively to test my sanity. Still, in hind sight, all the difficulties will drift into the fog of the past and the skills and memories remaining will stead you well. The juggling a dental student has to deal with is but a prelude to the business world's hustle. Enjoy, and do not fret too much. There is light at the end of the tunnel.
ReplyDeleteI remember the latter part of my senior year--all of a sudden the faculty accepted you as a peer, with more respect, as some kind of equal. They have been there before too, and respected the fact you made it through with your head held high.