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!

We've Got a Lot to Cover

Don't let the title fool you, this isn't an Apple product launch.  But luckily, I do have lots of new and exciting things to discuss and cover.  Here we go!


First off, the shutdown.  It sucked for sure and I'm glad it ended relatively quickly.  Yes, stipends were frozen and did not come in on Oct 15.  But they will be getting refunded soon and pay should be normal on Nov 1.  I was actually on my ADT starting Sept 1 so I was technically on active duty once the shutdown hit and my pay was actually not frozen and I got my normal pay on October 15.  The government has gotten their act to together temporarily and hopefully we don't go through all of this again in January!  It was a bit frightening and somewhat of a wake up call.  It certainly had me second guessing a possible future in the Air Force because it's not fun imagining a future where I don't control my own destiny.  Having said that, being on active duty seems to be a trump card in these government shutdown and budget issues so maybe the fear will be gone once I'm on active duty for good.

The key was that my wife and I have built up a decent emergency fund so realistically we could have survived for several months by just slashing some of the fluff we buy and going bare bones with our necessities using her income.  This, my friends, is why you buy an umbrella before it rains.


Second, I was accepted to the 1-year AEGD program!  There were almost 80 applicants for about 65 spots so the odds were great to begin with.  I will find out my base in December and will certainly let you all know.


All for now!  School remodel is in full swing and hopefully all the clinics will be done by January.  Things look amazing and the OU College of Dentistry is finally launching into the 21st century!

As always, email me if you have questions.

Is This Real Life?

I'm sure many of you have seen the YouTube video "David After Dentist".  If not, please crawl out from under the rock you've been hiding under for the last 4 years and check it out.  The moment of interest in the video is when David, who is delirious from the after effects of the medication he received at a recent dental appointment, yells to his father, "is this real life?".

That's a little bit how I feel right now.  It's convenient that the whole dentist theme ties in, but I often wonder to myself these days if this is real life.  I'm 2 semesters from graduating and at this moment I have no clue where I will be one year from now.  I will find out soon enough, but this is a pretty neat moment in my life.  Never before has the future been so unknown yet so exciting!

If you've followed my blog and read every word on every page, you might have pieced together that this Air Force thing was somewhat of a childhood dream of mine.  I longed to be an astronaut or a pilot and when I decided to attend Oklahoma instead of the Air Force Academy, I assumed those dreams were behind me, ever fleeting as I moved forward with my life, with more "practical" things.

In a twist that can only be described as incredible, I was introduced to the HPSP program during my sophomore year of undergrad at OU as a means to pay for dental school.  I applied and was one of five students in the entire country selected.  I was sworn in a few months before dental school began but until this week, neither my Air Force career nor my upcoming DDS degree seemed real.  I've been working for so long that it's been easy to say "one day I'll be doing this, or that".  But that day is coming.  And for some reason, it's starting to sink in now.

I think this is due to a couple of reasons.  I recently submitted my base ranking for the AEGD and recently drove down to Barksdale Air Force Base for an interview. I am currently on externship at a community clinic cranking out fillings and extractions like a dental robot.  I've shocked myself at how much I've progressed as a dentist and as a person and it finally seems real.

My point in all of this is to say this.  Cherish where you are in your life because in reality, no matter what our goals are, everything in life is just a journey.  To ignore your everyday life and only focus on what is to come is to miss out on everyday beauty and excitement.  Conduct yourself ethically and with integrity and your long term goals will fall in place.  But don't forget to have fun! We will be learning our entire lives so enjoy the journey because really, that's all we have.

When my wife and I find out where I'll be going for my AEGD, I'll post again and show what my rankings where in comparison to the base I was given.

As always, email/tweet/comment if you have questions for me.