First Week of Dental School, check.

I’ve been really busy the past two weeks preparing for dental school and haven’t been able to update the website.  I also haven’t had time to touch my camera, how disappointing!  After the first week and a half of dental school classes most of my fears and hopes have been realized.  I really enjoy the material and find it interesting, and it’s going to be a lot of work!  Really looking forward to learning more and getting more experience, especially in the lab.

Some of my books for dental school this quarter, oh my!

Our first week was a really slow introduction to the school, classes, and teachers.  This past week, however, things started to get real.  Our first anatomy lecture was a 4 hour marathon that ended with 105 powerpoint slides and over 10 pages of notes.  Our second time in with our clinic partners had us applying fluoride varnishes on each other, and our second day in lab we were drilling on extracted teeth, and placing composite fillings.  It was a whirlwind week of 6-8 hours of class a day.  I felt like had I studied for 3 hours a day at the library after class, not only would I be extremely bored and frustrated, I’d still feel like I had more to cover!

So… I decided not to do that.  Instead everyday I’ve been to the gym directly after classes for 1-2 hours playing racquetball, running, or lifting weights with Max.  It really helps to detach from school for a couple hours and think about something else, and not feel guilty.  Had I sat at home for 2 hours surfing the internet or watching TV I would feel guilty for not doing anything constructive.  But going to the gym is fun, constructive, and not school-related.  Plus, getting in shape is never a bad thing.

We have yet to get really into the thick of things (our first exam isn’t until the 16th of October), but I hope I can continue this routine.  The main library is close to the gym, so stopping by there for a couple hours on my way back home is convient, and then I can relax when I do finally return.  I’m trying to take a page out of my friend Max’s playbook and focus on studying the main themes and important points rather than getting bogged down in the hundreds of pages of details.  You would do nothing but eat, sleep, and study if you tried to learn everything we’re “expected” to know for a test.

We’ll see how the first quarter goes before I put my foot in my mouth.  Needless to say, this is going to be a great challenge, and a challenge I’m really looking foward to.  And I always make sure I have time for Buckeye football, go bucks!