It's always nice to attend an event with people who you know have the same goals as you do. You know automatically that the next person you talk to is in a way your competition, but also someone who's in the trenches with you. Someone who knows what utter agony it is to take all these science courses, apply through AADSAS and study/take the DAT.
Anyway, i've already made my decision to go to dent school. Or at least make every attempt i can to test my limits of learning. The workshop was nice to get familiar with LLU and i got a chance to see it as a quality first choice instead of the default one.
i still want to be a dentist in spite of all the reasons people seem to want to be dentists. i hate the fact that all these Koreans are already doing it or trying to do it. i hate that the school is filled with a bunch of extra-connected SDAs which makes for a disgustingly fertile hotbed of gossip. i hate that the dent school is like in the basement of the building and feels practically subterranean. i hate when my family talks to me about expectations and high hopes. But even with all those negative factors, i still want it so it's nice to have that strange counter-motivation being an ineffective deterrent. i like LLU a lot, and it's so cliche, but i like it for the fact that they seem to really want to get out and do stuff to help other people.
When i was young i knew i wanted to be a doctor in order to "help people". While that idealistic dream has somewhat lost its luster, i've realized i still definitely want to help people. i've seen the power of simple dental care and it'd be awesome to actually have a skill set that i could use in that way. What the heck would i do with my computer skills? Show them how to find crap on Google? Or how to make an email address? Or how to set up a computer network? If i wanted to just make decent money as a contractor it would've been quite possible, but even "saving the world" wasn't enough for me in the Air Force. i want to help lives. i'm not really that concerned about money. i've made crappy money and it was whatever. i estimate i really only need about 60-70K (generally, not including any adjustments for cost of living in different areas) to reach the maximum echelon of material happiness as an unmarried male with no dependents and this could be accomplished quite easily in almost any career, but i've chosen dentistry and i only hope that dentistry chooses me.
