One Year Down, Two to Go

I am done with my first year of dental school (actually, I was done a month ago, but I guess it has taken a while to sink in). Tomorrow I officially start my second year of dental school in which I will no longer be working on plastic teeth that can be replaced at will - I will be working on live patients. It's exciting and frightening at the same time. Somehow, in the last year, I have been taught most of what I need to give basic dental care to my patients - and somehow I've been deemed competent enough to do so. That's right folks, within the coming weeks I will be handling sharp, fast-spinning instruments in and around real people. So, in order to calm the nerves of any future patients, as well as my own I took a look back at the last year to see what has been accomplised in my first year of dental school...

I've taken:

40 midterms

50 quizzes

25 finals

that's a total of 115 scantrons and some went better than others:

In Fixed Prosthodontics, Operative Dentistry, Dental Anatomy and Endodontics, we've had:

100 Projects for check-off or grade

30 practical examinations

Again, some went better than others:

In the last year I've walked more than 300 miles to and from school and travelled to Philadelphia, DC and Phoenix as a student representative

Despite all the projects, tests and travelling I've been privileged to make great friends and enjoy the beautiful city of San Francisco.

I've done all this and more for no less than $100,000. It's been the most expensive year of my life, but I have no complaints. I thoroughly enjoyed my first year of dental school with all the ups and downs, good and bad grades and lost sleep. Would I do it again? Hm....call me masochistic, but if I had to, I would do it again.

Now, I could never do it again with out my biggest support and I could never have made it through this last year without the love, support and encouragement of my beautiful wife Morgan. I love you Morgan!