In 2018 I wanted to highlight more stories of dentists and hygienists leaving dentistry to create more happiness in their careers. I came up with a series of blog interviews sharing others’ amazing stories, so that you could see that change is possible for all of us. Then it dawned on me that the interviews may have been glossing over the real work involved in career change.

I wrote this article to keep it real, as yet another reminder that this process can feel really complicated when you’re going through it. I hope you enjoy.

I recently had a conversation with a friend about all the career change stories I’ve shared in recent weeks. This conversation made me wonder if something is missing from these stories, and I’m curious to know what you think.

I wonder if the Celebrating New Beginnings stories of leaving dentistry seem like these neatly wrapped packages that leave out the complexities we all faced.

I wonder if you can’t appreciate the long circuitous path it took many of us to change our careers.

I question whether we are able to convey the truth about our experiences in 2000 words.

Just in case, I’m here to tell you, these were not simple, straight-line journeys for any of us. I also don’t want to wave the “woe is me” flag and over-dramatize what any of us experienced.

I just want to be real about it.

Turning a years or decades long experience into a short article will likely leave out a lot. It would be impossible and boring to relive how the journey unfolded for each one of us. Because of that, we might gloss over the real angst and fear that any of us felt along the way. You might not see the doubt we all experienced before, during, and after making these tough decisions.

In a recent conversation with a dentist, she expressed to me that the idea of leaving dentistry seemed insurmountable.

And that reminded me that the idea of leaving dentistry felt insurmountable for all of us at one point.

That’s the reality of this process for many. I don’t want people to read these stories and think they could never do it themselves. Instead, I hope people become inspired enough to think, “You did this, so I can do this too.”

This is why I was so moved by Mark’s description of crying on the side of the road in his car one day, realizing he had to change something. The image so vividly and honestly captures a moment many of us have experienced but are too afraid to share.

It’s why I admire Apple for dedicating the entire year after she left dental school to search for comfort and seek out others who could help her find a new perspective. She worked hard to move on from the loss she experienced and never gave up.

You don’t get to see the failures that we experienced along the way.

You did not see all the times I judged myself a loser because I thought I wasn’t successful enough post-dentistry. Or the times I thought I was a fraud, believing I was only great at quitting something. Or the times I wondered if I’d ever find what I was really meant to do– even though it was right under my nose all along.

You might even be surprised to know that some of us might still be in our bridge career– the career that got us out of dentistry but isn’t our forever. It’s okay to make some changes and not have all the answers yet.

But there’s a but.

But, the difference is anyone who has made that initial leap out of a traditional dental career now knows what we didn’t know before. We know we have choices. We are no longer stuck, attached to holding onto a career we don’t want.

We more openly accept what comes our way, and in turn, more things come our way.

Even if we feel less secure in the superficial ways like our image or income, it doesn’t matter much. We feel much more solidly secure in who we are, and we trust that this will take us to wherever we need to be.

And that is the most important transformation of them all.