Working Woman, Here I Come!

It's done. My boards are DONE!! I flew down to California two weeks ago to meet my board patient, 31-yr old Sean, and make sure he qualified, then flew down a week later to actually take my test at the USC dental school. Holy smokes, PERFECT BOARD PATIENT! Could not have been better. In any way. Sent him back to get approved, which was the scary part, because I didn't have a back-up, coming from Utah and all. Waited, waited...he walks back with the "good" blue paper. (insert freaking-out-happiness here) Got him numb, cuz I passed that test last month, and just went to town! Came off super easy, went through super quick, and submitted him for approval in just over an hour! (we're given 2 1/2 hrs) First one done in the room, and then I just had to sterilize instruments, clean up my chair, and then sit around and wait for an hour for them to check everything,

Totally passed. I haven't gotten my results yet, but it's like going back to third grade to take those multiplication/division tests, and not getting your score yet, but being pretty darn sure you knew what you were doing and that you would pass. So I'm feeling good, especially after taking the national board exam yesterday!! So now I'm DONE!! One or two more small papers to write, and then it's cap and gown for me!

Yes, I've already thrown away all my papers and old stuff from school. Pretty much all of it. Packing will probably start tomorrow (not that we know where we're going, we just know we gotta get out of this tiny place) and then in a few weeks I'll get my license!! Then I'll be making the big bucks!

Wait, I need a dentist to work for...shoot.

ENDURING TO THE END

I finally understand it. Live the gospel til your dying breath. I always thought, "Why would some old person want to stop trying to live the gospel? They're so close! Why not just keep going until you're ACTUALLY done?"

I'M THAT OLD PERSON.

Laugh. Laugh all you want. I know a lot of you have done what I'm doing and maybe more. But let me tell ya. Ugh...it's hard to endure.

Boards. Start in 4 days. End in 5 weeks. Holy crap.

Thursday is Local Anesthesia. I get a person numb for no reason other than to show I know where to put the sharp pointy needle and how to squirt it out so they talk like a retard. Okay, so that part I'm kinda excited about. Oh wait, the 50-question written test about it...not so much.

Then mid-April I fly down to California (USC) and clean a quadrant of a complete stranger's mouth (THANKS UNCLE MARK!!) and get graded on that... let's not even get started on how stressful that is..."should i drive/fly out there before the test to meet him and make sure he meets the criteria? what if he doesn't meet all the qualifications? what if he's...? what if he has...?" the possibilities are endless, and not knowing the answers (and being the control-freak-of-a-Packard-who-HAS-to-have-all-the-answers that I am) for my $1000 test is...well, let's call it...unnerving.

Then just four days after THAT...the eight-hour, 300/400 question national board exam. studying pretty much every spare minute I have. taking practice tests. failing them. studying more. hard to remind yourself you actually DID learn something during the last four years of your life. YOU DID! they just don't want to ask you those questions...the ones you DO know the answers to... no, they want to ask when you're supposed to cure the gold crown...when it's red-hot, prickled, or back to its original shade...WHEN AM I EVER GOING TO CURE A GOLD CROWN?? I just want to make money cleaning people's frickin teeth! Ask me whether the Gracey 11/12 is for the mesial or distal surfaces, I can tell you that! AND show you how!

Needless to say, I'm neglecting my husband. Good thing he loves me.

INSPITE OF MYSELF...

Okay fine. You win. And when I say "you," I really don't know who "you" are, (or is) but I'm ready to stop stick-it-to-the-man-ing. At least in this part of my life. Don't get too excited - I'm still not ready to finish the Harry Potter series I stopped reading when I was 14, and I'm still not going to start Twilight. I'm still not going to try EggNog for the first time (even if it's "just an ice cream flavor"), and I still have no desire to bring table centerpieces to my Sunday School lesson each week, just because "it's what you're supposed to do". So don't jump out of your seats; just because I finally started a blog doesn't mean I'm going to get all mainstream now. Baby steps. So I'm blogging. We'll just have to wait and see where this goes.