I've almost got you all caught up on what happened in my six weeks spent at Case - I didn't keep track of it as it was happening so I'm sure you're not hearing the majority of my experience. However, I think you've got the general gist of things. So when I was at my program, we had a variety of clinical experiences that we got to participate in. Each of the pre-dental students got four shadowing hours in the dental clinic and an opportunity to watch an oral surgery, (which you've already heard about.)
My second day in the clinic, the dental student I was observing asked if I wanted to assist. I basically died of excitement after she asked me and told me to glove up. I didn't do anything a monkey couldn't do (hold the high-vac, floss in a dental dam), but it was still one of the coolest things I did at the program and I was on cloud nine afterwards. (Don't question what excites me - I'm a nerd, we all know.)
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| Jill and I before clinicals |
On the animatronic side of things, all of the pre-dental students also got to use Case Western's DentSim lab and prepare a tooth! ("Prepare" is dental lingo for drill - it's like a whole other language to learn e.g. you don't "pull" teeth you "extract" them.) It was so enlightening to be able to drill a (fake) tooth and experience what it feels like. The sensation was way different than I was expecting; it's basically like putting a hot knife through butter and you don't have to wrench on it at all. We had two areas of the tooth to prepare, the top (occlusal) and the side (buccal.) I must admit, my buccal was 100 X's better than my occlusal, but I'm not being too hard on myself since it was the first time I've ever done anything like this.
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| Me prepping a tooth - it might be my favorite picture of me ever. |
With only 27 days until school starts for the fall semester (I thank my countdown widget on my new galaxy s4 for this information), I have to remember how to take what I've learned at my program and use it when I'm at college. I have to remember to always "pack for the overhead bin" and pay attention to the smallest of details. I have to remember to not psyche myself out before exams and use the focusing strategies we learned during "How to Become a Better Learner." Dr. Andre Mickel's plan for success must stay with me, as I remember to pray every step of the way to my goal and never forget where I came from. I have to remember to move with the ebbs and flows of life, and know when it's time to change and evolve as pointed out by Dr. Cacho. If I need to relax, I can recall on the information Dr. Lane presented to us during her "Music Therapy" talk. Dr. Catanese talked about "The Darker Side of Self," the self-sabotaging thoughts our brains are constantly feeding into our unconscious. I have to remember to not succumb to this poison, and focus on my strengths. But I shouldn't just remember the lessons from the very established people who spoke to us. I also should thank the students who stole a little bit of my heart. My fellow pre-dentals and pre-meds taught me how important diversity is and how much we can learn from each other's experiences. And most importantly, I have the professor who presented our lecture on metabolism who is battling leukemia to remember. He taught me how precious life is. He taught me how we should continue learning until the very end.
So thank you Case Western. It truly was amazing.
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| I miss everyone so much already.. |
Until next time,
PJ
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