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speaking of happiness

It's official! I'm dedicated to all things happy & joyful. As soon as Gretchen Rubin's new book arrived in the mail and I read the back cover: "she lives with her husband and two kids" I yelled "Eliza and Eleanor!!!" I wish she were my happiness bully. Here's my happiness gold stars.

1. Pottery continues to make me happy- although I've got a long way to go.  Today I made a pot for my succulents and pressed fun patterns into it! So fun. It's the mix of working with my hands (back to kindergarden!) and creating something practical. I spend a lot of time brainstorming what I could make next.

I could spend my Sundays in lab, doing patient work but... nah. This makes me happier. Happy people make better dentists.

open studio hours after work = blue scrubs 2. Pediatric dentistry. I had my peds block last week (one full week of just seeing pediatric patients aka baby teeth party). A classmate casually remarked "I haven't seen you this happy in a while!" I did notice that I felt happier lifted during the day. After all, we get to be silly at work saying funny things ("tooth shampoo", "tooth vitamins", "get your tooth to sleep!"- tell me you didn't smile reading those things.) I have never considered specializing in peds but the work environment seems too fun! Specializing is coming back on the table.

My heart melted when I saw this towel holder low on the ground...
because little teeth, little hands, short people. 3. How far I've come. In a few months, we're back to the summer schedule where clinic begins at 8AM. For a second I was all, "8 hours of patient work? Yikes." Then I remembered last summer when we first started seeing patients. We did exactly that. I was so lost then! My first filling? My loupes kept fogging up from a bundle of nerves/excitement/fear. I'll probably do that for my first root canal but... every day I'm getting better at dentistry. I'm gaining that quiet self confidence. I used to believe it was somewhat self-indulgent to make HAPPINESS a focus of my life. But when I'm happier, I am better to others. I'm more patient, empathetic, and understanding. It's that conscious decision to BE happy and deliberately seek out things that bring joy. And this week, a big thing making me smile: these flowers from my boyfriend all over my apartment. He'll read this and think I'm exaggerating but it really is everything. And I stop here to save you guys from all the mushy stuff I could write.

Go read Dave's post! Because if dating/relationship matter to you, being in dental school shouldn't stop that. Even if you decide now isn't the time, Dave mentions great points you can ponder on, such as your ideal career/others balance ratio.
Posted by Yesle at 10:53 PM