Decade in Review: Dental School Era (2012 - 2016)
This is part two of a three part series. It was inspired by the influx of long-form narratives on Instagram chronicling the hero’s journey of everyone’s last decade. But I needed a forum not bound by the character limit of Instagram captions.
In some ways, my decade was pretty similar many others. I started school. I graduated. I moved from city to city, traversing both coasts of the United States. There was upheaval and struggles. Then progressions from early adulthood to… adulthood?
YEAR: 2013
2013 marked the transition between my first year to my second year of dental school. It’s hard to succinctly describe dental school to non-dentists. But that first year of dental school was probably one of the most memorable experiences in my life. I took my epilogue from undergraduate message to heart and immersed myself into all of opportunities that USC provided.
As cliche as it sounds, the best way to describe my dental school mentality was “work hard, play hard”. I made the Dean’s List and maintained a 4.0 GPA. I went to my first ASDA Annual Session in Atlanta, Georgia (which was a WILD experience). Dental school is HARD, but the struggles foster a camaraderie between your peers. The first year of dental school felt like freshman year of undergrad 2.0. Everyone is still looking to establish a permanent friend group and everyone is still excited to explore the city. In this blog post, I broke down some thoughts and lessons from my first year of dental school: 10 Things I Learned During My First Year of Dental School.
Last but not least, this was the year that Ryan asked me to be his girlfriend at Disneyland! We actually met at the beach bonfire social before the start of dental school. His sim lab station was across the hallway from mine. We lived in the same apartment complex in downtown Los Angeles. We explored the city together that first year. But people warned us against dating dental school classmates - “if something goes wrong, you can’t avoid them because you take all classes together” or “it’s dangerous to date your classmate because you guys share the same group of friends”. Against all advice, we decided to give dating a try at the end of our first year of dental school. Seven years later, we have successfully weathered the stress of dental school and long-distance residency together.
YEAR: 2014
In 2014, we transitioned from second year dental students to third year dental students. Which meant graduating from pre-clinical dentistry (SIM Lab) to clinical dentistry (seeing real live patients)!
Despite the hectic schedule of a second year dental student, I applied for the Miss Los Angeles Chinatown pageant on a whim. The weekly training sessions were held down the street from my apartment. And as an Asian American woman living in Los Angeles, I hoped to get involved in the community and serve as an ambassador for Chinatown (and to do something fun that wasn’t dentistry or dental school). Unfortunately, I didn’t win the pageant or make it on the court. The heartbreak of losing the pageant paralyzed me and made me doubt myself and question my worth.
To offset the pain of losing Miss Los Angeles Chinatown, I doubled down on things I was good at - dentistry and writing. That spring, I was selected as one of five contributing editors for the ASDA National Editorial Board. Being a member of the editorial board gave me a creative platform during dental school, got me involved in organized dentistry and introduced me to a group of inspiring leaders from dental schools across the nation.
YEAR: 2015
2015 encompassed my third and fourth year of dental school at USC. Life was pretty busy - there was the usual stress of a full dental school course load, studying for exams, finding patients to complete all of the clinical graduation requirements (where do you find patients in downtown Los Angeles who can afford implants and WANT to be seen by a dental student?!) and applying for residency. I pretty much abandoned the blog to focus on my own personal well-being.
I attended the ASDA Annual Session in Boston during the Snowmageddon (February 2015). The city was shut down and showered with an impressive 110.6 inches of snow. As a native Los Angeleno, I never experienced anything quite like that. Little did I know I would be moving to Boston for residency next year!
Since it was our last year living in Los Angeles (and our fourth year of dental school), Ryan and I decided to rent an apartment in Manhattan Beach right next to the ocean.
I competed in the Miss Taiwanese American pageant that summer to conquer my pageantry demons.
And then I spent the entire summer and fall applying for orthodontic residency. I went to a few residency interviews in the fall, flying cross-country on short notice while also juggling my fourth year clinical dentistry requirements. In the end, I accepted a pre-match offer to Harvard!
