Well, it has obviously been a long time since my last post as the title of my blog was called "April's journey to Dr. status." And now that journey has begun!

I graduated from Midwestern University College of Dental Medicine on May 28th, 2015. 4th year was CRAZY -- to say the least. It started off with lots of dental experience being the D4 and having to mentor a D3. All of a sudden I was "in charge."

During our first break - end of August - I was set to go on a trip to Ireland with my girlfriends from college. Little to my knowledge this was the exact week where interviews were held for Periodontal residency (I was hoping to have a career as a periodontist - gum surgeon). I opted out of the trip to fly around the U.S. for interviews in Ohio, Washington, and Texas. A week later I found out that I was accepted to University of Texas, San Antonio Health Science Center for their perio residency. I was pretty excited to say the least (they are arguably the top perio residency in the country!).

Right around the corner was NBDE Part 2. Thankfully I had a nice long Thanksgiving break to study my butt off and pass on the first try.

Not long after this I was having second thoughts about a life in San Antonio. Did I want to do 3 more years of school? Was it worth the stress? I had been in school my whole life and I think part of me was scared to start working. I was also scared of starting over....again. Moving to SA meant not knowing anyone and being on my own. Sure I did this when I moved to AZ, but did I really want to do it all over again? I ultimately decided that though I loved perio and dental surgery in general I could do all of that being a general dentist and staying in AZ. I withdrew from the Perio residency in early January. My life basically was turned upside down.

Now the search was on for patients for WREB (my licensing exam). Through a much stressful couple of months I found all my patients -- one of whom was my wonderful boyfriend Mitch.

Mitch and I started dating mid January. How we met is an interesting story. I was doing the online dating thing on an app called "Plenty of Fish." Slightly cheesy I will admit, but hey it was free and not all the guys on there were complete sleezeballs! I was chatting with this guy named Kris. He just so happened to be a golfer so we thought, hey it'd be cool to get out golfing for our first date. Well Kris decided to make it a 4 some and invited Mitch and another of his friends. Kris, though a nice guy, just wasn't my type. Mitch and I just clicked without each other really knowing. Mitch decided to join POF and we started chatting. We went on our first date a few days later and the rest is history. We now live together in an apartment in Ahwatukee. We love being outside, golfing (of course), trying new places to eat, watching movies, and just being goofy!

After passing WREB it was smooth sailing until graduation, but there was one problem. I still hadn't found a job. I thought when choosing dentistry as a career that finding a job would never be an issue. That was until I chose to live in a city that have more dentists per capita than most other cites (California I think is the worst, but Phoenix is a close second).

May was a crazy month with interviewing but it was also really fun. We had senior banquet - I received the American Academy of Periodontology Award (ironically). 

It was a super fun night seeing all my classmates for one of the last times and getting appreciated for all the hard work of dental school. 

I was also inducted in the Omicron Kappa Upsilon Dental Fraternity. Those that are inducted must be in the top 20% of the graduating class, have superior leadership qualities, and have demonstrated exemplary traits of ethical character with potential qualities of future professional growth and attainments. I felt honored to be inducted into a group with such attributes. 

And then of course there was odontoblast. This is our "dental prom" we have every year. I had gone my first year but not years since. I figured since it was my last year I would go have a fun night with my friends and celebrate graduating!

Then it was all over. Graduation came and went. It was one of the biggest accomplishments of my life and I was extremely humbled by it all. Thankfully my parents and brother were able to attend and made me feel pretty awesome for achieving such a goal. But it was really them who got me through it all, I couldn't have done it with such supportive parents who were always there for me during the stress and tears!

But the problem had still not been solved. No job. What good is a degree (and a fricken expensive one at that) with no way to start practicing it!? After tons of interviews I eventually found a few offices to temp in, one in Apache Junction and one if Chandler, AZ. I was interviewing heavily with two different offices (one corporate and one private). I ultimately decided to take the private practice position. I will be practicing MTF at 14th Floor Dental in downtown Phoenix in the 14th floor of the Chase Tower (such an amazing view!!), and WTh at San Tan Valley Smiles in San Tan Valley, AZ.

My new official position starts on Wednesday and I couldn't be more excited yet nervous. I will hopefully try to keep this updated a little more about my first year as a new dentist! Wish me luck :)

Oh and if anyone needs a dentist -- you know where I'll be!!