2025

I've been meaning to sneak one last post in this year of 2016.  Mostly because one of my earliest entries into this musty old tome was titled 2016.

Looking back on this post, I focused on how I felt too old to be hanging out with undergraduate students simply due to lack of relatability.  I had outgrown the 'college lifestyle' faster than most and was tired of binge drinking and killing my eardrums at house parties.  Looking ahead, I was worried that I would be too young for dental school, like I wouldn't be able to relate with the older age group.

Now that I think about it, I actually got along best with my classmates that were a few years older than me.  I guess I'm old at heart.

I also remarked on how old I was gonna be come 2016.  32 years, now half-way to 33...gulp.  I can also note that I'm actually quite pleased Chicago lost the 2016 Olympics.  Living here these past 10 years has made it abundantly clear that money management is not exactly a strong suite to this city or the state in general.  We have had no budget for 1.5 years and the trickledown effect is bleh.  For example.  The good ol' PPO insurance Delta Dental of Illinois has not paid our office in 1.5 years.  Thousands of dollars owed and we apparently still must treat the patient per the contract.  Definitely an insurance I will avoid when I get my own gig.  But I digress, living here with the Olympics would have been an absolute cluster fuck and I'm happy it didn't happen.

2016 itself was a fairly mundane year.  An absurd and embarrassing election cycle has concluded with the leader of the free world as Donald Trump.  Read that again.  I'm not a very political person and the other option was more of the same so I'm not as polarized as many.  The debates were awful...just mudslinging with no discussion on tackling problems.  I digress again.  but this is 2016.

The only real positive life change is the baby on the way.  She still may arrive before the new year which would be great for tax deductions!  More great though because my wife is miserable and tired of having a parasite steal all her resources.  We shall see!

So let's look forward.  My 2016 post was in 2007.  So nine years!  2025.  I will be turning 41 that year.  I really wonder what the world will be like?

Will the White Sox have won another WS by then?  Probably not.  Will the Cubs have won another five?  Probably.  Life may not be worth it by this point. I keed I keed.

What will my child be like?  Will we have a second child?  A third?

Where will I be working?  Will I enjoy ownership?  Will I actually be an owner?  If not then I hopefully am not a dentist anymore either because this current professional track has definitely run its course.  I've been in the same routine for 4 years now.  Definitely time to switch it up.

Hopefully my associate years will be a distant memory by 2025.  Hopefully I'll actually put some useful posts up again.  I do enjoy writing in general, so maybe that is another area of life to explore.

I've been suffering chronic upper back pain for the past month.  It is not worsening...but it is not improving.  My crap med insurance isn't making me want to get an MRI or see a specialist but probably no choice.  Reminder to all new grads.  GET DISABILITY INSURANCE BEFORE YOU GRADUATE.  It provides such peace of mind.  I'm jumping the gun in saying I'll need to use mine..but knowing it is there really takes some of the stress off my mind.

So merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year all rolled into one.

I will leave you all with a quote from the immortal Ferris Bueller:
"Life moves pretty fast.  If you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it."

In Like Indiana Jones Under the Door

Holy Hell  I cannot fathom that it has been nearly 2 years since I posted on this here thing.

Let me post a brief update:
1) I still sadly work in the same places I did when last I posted.  Reading back on my ambitions to get off on my own makes me depressed. 

2) Baby on the way (which is why I stopped looking into practice ownership temporarily).  Time to focus on something besides dentistry...ie not being a shitty dad.

3) Still in Chicago, planning to get a house in the burbs by next summer.  Ahhh suburban life.  I will miss the awesomeness of the city...but I will not miss the cramped quarters and overall dirtiness

So let me lay it out like a do a treatment plan.
Phase 1: Hopefully have healthy baby in next few months, learn how to do the early parenting schtick.
Phase 2: Get out of the city (acquire home to raise said baby)
Phase 3: Contact broker and get on the horse to buy a practice.
Phase 4: Review this post next year and kick myself if I haven't accomplished 1-3.


I do hope to chronical the practice purchasing process (much like planned to chronical starting from scratch).  I do plan to chronical a lot things that don't end up getting chronicalled (not even a word?).

Ahhh such is the adult life.  Just like a home improvement project that gets tabled for months..I'm doing the same thing here.

The meat of this blog was the dental school experience itself, I still have fun re-reading and remembering stuff I had already forgotten about.  Just had our 5 year anniversary last May.  Time certainly has a way of ramping up every year.

I can't believe people still read this thing.  I hope my old posts are still useful to the next generation.  Maybe..just maybe I will be able to contribute to the young graduates again.  No promises.  But I'll try to try!

Adieu.