At 21 years old, this summer, I am happier than I have ever been in my life. Being an adolescent was difficult for me because life was so full of uncertainty. Now, every day, I rush through breakfast and my chores with profound enthusiasm: I can´t wait to get to my job as a dental office receptionist. I have found my niche in life, the little corner of our beautiful world that I seek to make all my own. I cannot imagine being more dedicated to my future: I live, eat, and breathe dentistry and deeply relish learning all the ins and outs of the workings of a dental office, especially the complexities of the business side. I adore the people and treasure every moment that I have with the patients, answering their questions, reassuring them, and sharing with them. The hope of beginning dental school in the fall of 2011 is driving me on to make my Senior year of college spectacular. I anticipate the highest grades and greatest joy of my college years in these coming months.
I am enormously grateful for the daily opportunity to observe dentists at work. Patiently, I wait for the right moment to ask pointed questions. I have attended to other dentists in the past, and had the privilege of assisting them as well. Still, the ones that I am working with this summer are the most talented, organized, and energetic, as well as the most compassionate, and they have contributed to my relentless embrace of the field. Becoming a part of the dental profession provides my life with meaning, scope, priorities, horizons, hope, and the profound tranquility and contentment that can only be found in service to others. I am scheduling, pacing, and organizing my life around this central goal: dentistry is my lifetime glue, center, and source of personal and professional energy.
I come from a traditional Korean family, very close-knit, hard-working, serious, and driven to succeed. My parents find deep fulfillment in my pursuit of a prestigious career in the health care field, and they support me and inspire me, fulfilling their lives at the same time that I fulfill my own—our common destiny. I honestly feel that I have been groomed for service in the Health Care field for as long as I can remember, and this is not at all uncommon, especially for girls in Asian-American families. No precise reason or a specific event in my childhood or adolescence seems to account for the fact that I had told people from perhaps the age of 10 that I wanted to become a dentist when I grew up. I suppose, looking deep inside me, it is my love of the smile, the challenge of the intricacy and the technical feats involved, the warm intimacy and affection that is required in the treatment of patients, the respect, autonomy, and the power of love. And, aside from these loftier aspects of my own ambitions, I was unhappy with my own teeth and self-conscious about the way they looked. Every girl wants to be pretty. Perhaps my vanity, as well, helped to determine my calling in the long run.
A broken molar tooth and a subsequent gold cap at the age of 8 got me started. Later came five silver fillings. But it was the slight underbite that I had as a child that drove me mad. Every day in front of the mirror, I practiced trying to look ¨normal¨ with no success at all. I was, plainly and simply, ugly, yet determined to fix it, and I did. This experience helped to sensitize me for a lifetime of service, helping others to gain self-esteem and confidence through a beautiful and healthy smile. I especially look forward to making mission trips so that I can help people from less privileged countries, reaching out to them and letting them know how much I care for them, so that they feel my joy in providing for their oral health care needs.
