Mum, you made my day! That’s why I do this. If you have any contacts at the dental school, I would reach out to them. I don’t know much about it, but I would imagine getting into teaching would be a little easier than switching careers entirely. It is a hard career, but it would be nice to go through life with less anxiety and guilt. Hope your days stay positive and that you’ll continue to keep in touch.

Thanks, Jay! I had to go see what you meant by fellow asshole… I like that. I guess that can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how we want to remember something… don’t you love it when someone knows your life better than you??

Ok, am working on that!

Hilarious! Good luck. You might have to retire first to appreciate it. 😉 😉

Cheers Lola, I already failed today ? but will try again tomorrow ?

Thanks, Alok. I appreciate that. We dentists are so hard on ourselves that even if we have the best of intentions and do our best work, if we don’t get the results we want, we terrorize ourselves over it. But it’s always good to remind ourselves of what you said because it’s true!!

Thank you, Mark! You answered the question I never got around to asking in this post (although I wanted to.) I was wondering if others felt that same way, and I wonder how many of us do. I’m guessing quite a few. I’d love to hear where this clarity takes you down the road!

Hi fraggs– that is so interesting that so many careers have these similarities that yours and mine share. I think it’s being in the mixed health care/service industry. It’s very complex and we deal with the same things. My aunt was an optician, and she had similar stories. Ears, eyes, mouth… hmm… all in the same region! Anyway, I know you work your tail off, and I will look forward to hearing about what is next for you. Until then, at least you’ll get to use this perspective to remember the good you are doing to help these people.