Sometimes, I still find it hard to believe that this is really real life.
I tend to get overly excited about dental school pretty frequently, like when I got my first packet of information in the mail..
----
So anyway, what exactly is a white coat ceremony? What happens?
Well, a variety of things - you sit with your classmates in an auditorium full of family and friends, as you listen to the Dean speak about the wonders of the dental profession. He'll mention that this weighty 350K investment is actually one of the best decisions you've made in your life. Then, you'll get on stage and introduce yourself to the audience, walk across, and be knighted into dentistry, draped in the symbolic armor of a white coat. And once that's over, you'll stand with your fellow classmates, and recite a pledge to strive for excellence, never to harm patients, and to uphold academic pursuit to the highest standard. Parents and loved ones will flood around, cameras will flash, and all of a sudden, it's over - but now, you're a little different. You can finally remove the "pre" from "pre-dental student", and it's time to get the show on the road :)
As I sat in my chair, I thought about each of my classmates. Everyone has a story, and the white coat ceremony embraces all the deliberate, and laborious steps that came before this moment; it celebrates a journey of blood, sweat, and tears, that feels endless when tackled head first, and oddly fleeting when viewed in hindsight.
Despite all the bumps in my path to dentistry, I probably wouldn't have it any other way. When I try to count every opportunity that God has opened in my life, I'm always overwhelmed. I am grateful because everything has led me here, and I am so excited for what the future holds. Even if means a being a zombie, being sleep-deprived, and spending endless hours studying for anatomy, my other classes, and practicing lab things - I'm ready :)
