94 Days of Summer, Day 48: Tess's Anesthesia-Induced Realization

I’m happy to feature a new guest blogger today, senior Communication Studies major Tess Parsons. Here Tess recounts for us a recent career epiphany that came about while she was under anesthesia! Read on…

Senior COMS major and future DDS Tess!

Although I am finishing my time at USF in December, my schooling won’t stop there.  During the last year I spent here in college, I had a total change of heart and went from thinking I wanted a career in event planning, to deciding to go to dental school.  I know what most of you must be thinking, ‘how could you make such a drastic change, and how will your Communication Studies major be related at all to dentistry?’  To answer that question, there are two parts.

First, the drastic change happened when I was under anesthesia to get my wisdom teeth pulled.  My mom had been telling me that a career in dentistry seemed like a good idea, but I shrugged it off and didn’t bother looking into it any further.  But when I was just about to be put to sleep for the wisdom teeth extraction, my thoughts about the future suddenly became clear (oddly ironic huh?).  As I started to fall asleep I said to the oral surgeon and his nurses, ‘I definitely want to be a dentist!’  The doctor must have thought the laughing gas was kicking in and that I must have been making stuff up.  But to his surprise, as soon as I woke up, I told him again, ‘For some reason I just had a total change of heart and want to go into dentistry.’  It really had nothing to do with my experience with this dentist in particular, it just seemed to be the right fit for how I envisioned my future.

So that was how the drastic change happened, but to answer the second part of the question in everyone’s mind, ‘How will Communication Studies be related at all?’  When I had my dental school epiphany, I don’t think I had realized just how much work it takes to become a dentist, but I was not easily daunted.  I did a ton of research of dental school and what they required as prerequisites.  To my surprise and delight, dental schools prefer that you have completed your BA before applying to their program.  And even better, Communication Studies was one of the BA programs that dental schools were looking for in a candidate.  I have always enjoyed every minute of my classes in the Communication Studies department and hoped that just because I changed my mind about a career didn’t mean that my classes weren’t going to be used in my ‘real life.’  But this just goes to show that people need communication skills in any career path they choose, whether it is a Communication professor or even a dentist.  The skills I have learned in my classes will be so helpful in talking to patients, communicating with my family, and even running a successful practice someday.

So what now?  I have a final semester in undergraduate, a year of dental school applications and prerequisite science classes, and four more years of school to become a dentist.  Seeing the look on my Oral Surgeon’s face when I was at my internship dressed in scrubs, helping with a tooth extraction on a patient: PRICELESS!”

Thanks, Tess! That is so great to know that dental schools are looking for our Communication Studies majors! Can’t wait to keep track of you and your career plans!