Introduction

I find myself in a state of haphazard disorganization as I input the first words of my inaugural entry. At the age of 26 - over a decade since I started my first blog, I've lost the inherent nature to log online and scribble my incoherent teenage angst over the years. From bad boyfriends to bad grades and everything in between, I never thought I'd find myself at a point where I could finally speak of my professional experiences. My dearest friends can attest to my disastrous diaries where I've bellyached the most mundane of trivialities (and we have all been there); but at some golden age of maturation (not that I'm there yet) where the postings halted and I grew some skin (some of the wisest words of advice to me - "shit happens, don't sweat the small stuff!), I felt for once I could convey a resource of some sorts. If there were young people out there somewhere like myself, I would maybe have something small to offer to them. If not, then at least I can preserve what literacy I have left as a writer.

Hovering in my second year of dental school, it was a bit of a lucky draw for me to get where I am. In my personal statement, I would never be one of those applicants who can illustrate a lifelong dream of becoming a dentist. In honesty, I imagine very few children becoming so enchanted at the prospect of cleaning and pulling teeth that they would make an aspiration of it. My motives to applying into dentistry were completely unromantic. I enrolled in science like a typical undergrad, which autopiloted into a Master's project, and toward the end of grad school it was, "now what." Like much of my post-secondary years, I crammed. My requirements, DAT scores, prerequisites all went in within months and I applied hoping for the best. As a Canadian outcompeted by my own colleagues, I had limited selection applying in the US and knew that any options down south would reap my wallet forever. I regretted my lax study habits and was convinced by mentors and forum strangers that I wouldn't make it, but nobody knew the facts. A hidden gem known as the US-Canada GPA conversion salvaged my application and I was on par with my competition. I could scroll on forever about the months of waiting, interviewing, waiting again, climactic moments of acceptance, preparing, and finally parting with my hometown - but my intentions are to advise predental students intermittently as the arduous application cycle revolves.

For now, I take advantage of days I can sleep in, get a workout in, have a laugh or two, or anything that reminds me I'm still human (while avoiding the streets of Detroit when it gets dark around here past 5pm). Even now, I am still learning not to sweat the small stuff. 

Good luck :)