I Can Almost Taste It

I'm officially in that weird stretch of school where things are almost done, and I feel a true sense of them being done, yet I still have a lingering stress of making sure everything actually does get done (follow that?).

I also feel like things really are starting to end as I bid farewell to some patients for the last time and reflect on all of the struggles my class in particular has had over the last 4 years with all the changes here at Oklahoma.

And finally, I'm starting to feel like this Air Force thing is real.  That's where this post begins.

Just after my last post in October, I found out officially that I will be heading to the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO for my 1-year AEGD.  It is scheduled to begin August 5th and presumably will end around that same time next year.  Before that, however, I am slated to attend COT in the July class (June 30-Aug 1).  Right now my wife and I are trying to decide if we should move to CO just before COT or try to squeeze it in right after.  It's a tough decision and I'd rather move before, but it's probably going to come down to how comfortable we are financially.

Just before Christmas my wife and I actually went up to CO Springs to look around and we found two great apartment complexes just E of the Academy.  My housing stipend will be about $1600/month so we are shooting for something in the $1000-1200 range to maximize how much we can save while still enjoying our time there.  We plan to call the 2 complexes back in a month or so and whichever can offer us the better deal we will probably take.  We like one of them a little more than the other but we'll see how it all shakes out.

I haven't received my official orders yet but they should be coming soon.  That will allow me to schedule the AF to move my stuff and get that all sorted out.   My wife is a NICU nurse and she'll be applying for a Colorado license soon so she can start looking for jobs out there.  It's probably going to be a bit difficult considering she'll only be there for 1 year but I'm confident she'll find something, even if it's part time.  

In terms of dental school, things are coming together nicely.  I won't get into the details, but my class has taken the brunt of the changes here at Oklahoma the last few years and we are chronically behind in clinic compared to the classes before us and the upcoming classes behind us when we were them.  Fortunately the faculty seem like they're going to be flexible with us because we are simply running out of time to get everything done.  I think I'll actually be able to meet all of the requirements so I'm still working hard assuming that our requirements won't change (which they likely will).

So things are finally coming together and starting to seem real, but I'm still in the fog of school and working hard to finish up on time.  As soon as I do, I'll have about a month and a half off (May 10 - June 30) to just hangout, which will be very nice.  I'm such a high-gear person though that I think it's going to be kind of hard for me to have so much time off and I'm already trying to make arrangements to work part time or something for that short period that I'm waiting.  We'll see! 

Other than filling out tons of very similar forms for the Air Force that are emailed to me weekly (name, SSN, address... etc.), not much else has happened besides finding my AEGD spot and looking for a place to live.  Things will heat up even more soon once I get my orders and buy my uniform (soon!) so stay tuned for more frequent postings as school comes to an end and my Air Force journey begins.

As always, email me if you have any questions!