Something Old, Something New...

 2011 has been one of the most monumental years in my life with the beginning of this adventure I am calling dental school, but with everything new this year has also been about some amazing things that have not changed...

As 2011 marks the year I began dental school it also marks the 25th year of my mother's graduation from dental school (my mom and i love how cosmic things can be)!

However away from teeth and dental school for a moment, there is an even greater anniversary to be celebrated...

November 14th, 2011 marks the 30th Wedding Anniversary of my amazing parents!!!
I cannot even begin to describe how blessed I am to have the parents I do.  30 years that is something to brag about!!!  I am not sure children always realize how much they are loved by their parents, but I have so many blessings to count everyday.  I have two parents who not only love each other unconditionally and have spent everyday of the last 23 years living and breathing for their children.  Sometimes, my brother, sister and I forget that my parents ever had a life before we came along because we have always consumed their everyday.  I have now gotten to age where I am beginning to look back and appreciate what amazing parents I have...

My sister is two years younger than me and growing up (until I was a senior in high school), Hanna and I hated that we had to share a room.  My dad would always tell us it was because he wanted us to be best friends...we hate to admit it, but it worked (maybe too well).  Hanna and I cannot get enough of each other and would love nothing more than to always live together.  We have planned our future lives together, when we are going to have kids, where we are going to live/practice dentistry (yes my sister is going to be a dentist too and yes our future husbands are just going to be along for the ride haha)!  And we have not forgotten our little brother, who has been an only child for the last 4 years, he is also our world and the greatest little guy I know (we are also bringing him along for the ride)!

Every lesson I have learned, every experience I have had and every accomplishment I have achieved is completely a product of the love and guidance of two people.  I have a family that is built out of love and is united by an unbreakable bond.  I cannot be more thankful for everything in my life and look forward to every opportunity to pay it forward!

Tooth FAIRy...

In a moment of freedom from the confines of my apartment or a library study room, Augusta offered my friends and I a really great study break.  THE GEORGIA CAROLINA STATE FAIR!!!

It had everything you could ask for in a fair and more...
Rides, a beauty pageant, a livestock show, a teeny weeny circus, an animal show (with tigers)...

And all the favorite fair foods
corndogs, funnel cakes, candy apples, gyros, corn on the cob, cotton candy...

Here area few pictures of our dayventure

GHSU Grand Opening (aka My New Home)

GHSU College of Dental Medicine to celebrate grand opening

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal attends grand opening ceremony of the Georgia Health Sciences College of Dental Medicine’s new facility, one of the largest new dental clinical facilities and class sizes in the country. The five-story, 269,133 square-foot building houses 316 clinical operatories, the college’s eight residency programs, two large clinics for junior and senior dental students, simulation labs, an expanded faculty practice, the College of Allied Health Sciences’ dental hygiene program and an operating room and recovery unit for outpatient surgery.

The growth will help fill a pressing need for dentists in Georgia, which ranks 48th in the country for dentists per 100,000 residents.[1]  Approximately 260 patients are treated in the building each day. The expanded clinical space will enable a 61 percent increase in dental students per class (to 400 total) and a 30 percent increase in faculty by 2016.  The number of dental residencies will increase 64 percent by 2013.

The GHSU College of Dental Medicine typically recruits over a third of its students from dental health shortage areas. Almost half of 2010 graduates entered residency programs upon graduation, which should help increase the number of dental specialists and general dentists with advanced training who practice in Georgia.  GHSU alumni are found in 130 of 159 counties in Georgia.

The building has been recognized as the Best Higher Education/Research Project for 2011 from ENR Southeast, an industry magazine focused on construction news and trends because it is the first on the GHSU campus to be LEED-certified, denoting leadership in energy and environmental design.  An Education Commons, proposed for construction adjacent to the new building, would provide additional classroom space for GHSU dental and medical students.

For more information about the building call the Dean’s Office at 706-721-2117 or visit www.georgiahealth.edu/sod/expansion/.

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[1] U.S. Department of Labor estimates indicate Georgia needs to fill an average of 160 dental positions per year. Nearly one in seven Georgia counties lacks a dentist.

The is the first day of the rest of my life...

So blogging it brand new to me, but I am starting this blog so I can share my experience and journey through dental school while creating a pseudo-journal to look back on in years or decades to come...I can't wait to see where it takes me

I guess the best way to begin is to introduce myself...My name is Zoey and I have been accepted to Georgia Health Science University's College of Dental Medicine (previously known as Medical College of Georgia's School of Dentistry)...quite a new tongue twister

It was a very exciting day when I received my phone call from the Dean of Admission and I wanted to share the news with my parents in an exciting way as well...I decided to have my little brother capture the moment on video

The story behind the video begins in 1988 with a shirt my mom received at a baby shower while pregnant with me that read "I <3 MY DENTIST (She's My Mom)"
---Oh yeah, rewind a little further, my mom is a dentist, an awesome one at that!---
But to finish the story, I decided to make a grown-up shirt that read "I <3 MY DENTIST (She's My Daughter)"...clever ehh?

So check the video and pictures...and I will share more about me later

1988

Yes I know I look like an alien baby

2010