Welcome my next guest, Kristen.

Kristen practiced dentistry for seven years before she took some time off to raise a family.  After 12 years out of the field, she found herself at a crossroads when she suddenly needed a steady income.  So she got back in the game!  Although she had kept an active dental license over those years and even pursued her Fellowship in the Academy of General Dentistry, she became well aware of how much dentistry had changed in those past 12 years.  That didn’t stop her though.  She eased her way back in and discovered that dentistry really wasn’t for her after all.  After three years back in dentistry, she decided to call it quits.

There are two things that I find so interesting about Kristen’s story.  The first is you’ll see that Kristen didn’t have wonderful mentors during her formative dental years.  Her AEGD Professors blindsided her with a shocking evaluation at the end of her residency, and she often didn’t share the same practice philosophies of her bosses. I wonder how this impacted her future in dentistry.

The second is that having children allowed her to have a very natural career change– into motherhood.  This shift can be so natural, that we don’t need to confront any feelings we have about our current careers. When I first met Kristen 6 years ago, I thought that, in a way, she was so lucky that she never had to face quitting a lifetime career like dentistry. No one would ever question why she left to raise her boys– not even her. But, I guess as she stepped back into her first career, she was ultimately forced to confront the reality of her relationship with dentistry.

Now, I see this need to confront her reality as the lucky part. Through this process she has learned that she is much more capable than what she previously thought, she gets to express her adventurous spirit, and she gets to see how she will not give up.

This is how we grow.

If you are enjoying these stories and want to share yours, let’s talk! Whether you’ve decided to stick with dentistry or make a career change, we’d all love to hear from you. Click here to contact me!

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