I’m going to Dental School!

Author: Anonymous posted: Dec. 27, 2018.

Hello to the people who have followed my journey to dentistry.

I finally did it! I got into dental school and I will start in the summer of 2019! Although I’m still not 100% sure about where I want to attend, I am just simply happy to know I’m moving forward with my career. Now that I am done with that process, it is refreshing to go back to work with less stress in my life. During the whole application process though, I noticed some things that I will blurt on this blog.

The first thing I noticed was that I am young and have my whole world ahead of me. When I went for my interviews at the different dental schools, I met many people from different walks of life who have finally decided they have found their passion in dentistry, former teachers, engineers, pharmacists, doctors, and even professional athletes. Not that I was ever time pressured too much (except by one of my parents), meeting these people has helped me relax from the lingering pressures that come from my parents and people who attain financial stability earlier in their careers. It was also nice to meet people who are going through similar feelings but are still trying to become dentists for the sake of helping people. (by the way, pre-dental students are really worried about money because we have to borrow an average of $400k to pay for dental school and are not loaded with cash nor are we making anywhere close to a six-figure salary with the biology degree we got to pursue dentistry. Should have been a programmer if I wanted to start making money quickly.) Anyways, it was just a nice feeling to have peers who are still on the same boat as me and have lots more to learn before we are doing things that are really impactful.

The other thing I want to say is thank you to everyone from my parents, friends, Dr. Wong and Annie to all of you guys! Thinking back to my younger self, I am so appreciative that you were all the people around me influencing me in the most positive way possible. (If the people around me weren’t great, why would I even think to want to help people in the first place right!?)

So that’s some of what I have been thinking about these days.

Thanks for reading again guys.

Chiaki Asahara