So I read my last post and found it to be extremely negative. I don’t want to be ‘that guy’ so I’m attempting to look more on the positive side. I do tend to use this blog as a mental venting source every once in awhile, but I don’t want that to be all it’s good for. I honestly feel my overall pessimism is from being a Chicago sports fan. Let’s face it, our teams generally suck. And when they tease you with glimmers of hope, they choke it away in the last month of the season. I’m looking at you both Bears and White Sox. But this is not a sports blog, so I digress. I haven’t had much dentistry in my life these last 6 months which I can use as an excuse for limited posting. Yet, these past months have felt more busy and full of life moments than most do. I got married in July, went to Maui for a 2 week honeymoon. Hell, I finally left the country for the first time in my life. We visited Taiwan and Japan for a 2 week tour in earlier this month. The wife has a lot of extended family in Taiwan and we just went to Japan for the hell of it afterwards. Being a creature of habit and routine, I figured this extensive trip would stress the crap out of me, but it ended up being really fun (minus the 2 week jet lag).
I did work temporarily in a public health clinic and was grateful to at least maintain some of my hand skills and dental brains. But now, as we bring in the New Year, I finally appear to have a dental home for the immediate future. I will be working in the same office as my wife. As we plan to eventually own a practice together, I feel this will be an excellent trial period to see if we can get along professionally in the same working space. If it doesn’t work out, better to find out before we sink 500k into a practice. And there isn’t anything wrong with that either, there are plenty of married dentists out there that work in separate offices for the duration. However, I’m hoping to be in the other category as the journey of business and ownership would be more palatable for me as a team rather than on my own.
We hope to stay on as associates in the practice for the next few years while we improve our clinical and business skills whilst bringing the debt down. Ultimately want to own a practice within ten years. Ideally like to be transitioning within five. We do have one practice in mind at the moment owned by two dentists (also married). We met them during Dental School and have kept in touch, seems the timing for their retirement may work out perfectly with our own timetable for ownership. There is interest in both camps, but obviously things can change, but it’s nice to at least have a possibility. I would prefer to transition a practice rather than buy one outright. But we may end up doing that if we can’t find the right fit.
So the year of 2013 should be the one where we finally can start saving money and increasing our loan slaying. We’ve also spent a lot on vacation, the wedding and the holidays over the last year, so it will be nice for a low key year where we can develop a routine and start putting money away for our eventual migration from the city proper.
It still feels weird not having the ‘next grade’ to go to in terms of education. No more tests, no more class, no more paying tuition! Start my first associateship on Wednesday!
I have no more to say folks; I look forward to relaying dental focused entries again in the coming months. Granted, job hunting was viable topic, but it is also not really that exciting as there is just so much waiting involved coupled with bursts of excitement and/or frustration. I will look back on these past 6 months happily in the future as a time of self-discovery, patience, and humility. Everything works out in the end, just seeing that happy ending sometimes is tough.
Happy New Year everyone!
