Around about now its 24 years ago that me and three of my best friends set off on the adventure of a life time to do a dental elective study in Dallas in the summer of 1993.
Most of us (but not all of us) had just turned 21 and without a doubt it was the adventure of a lifetime. Although at that time we didn’t realise we would never do anything like that again. Some of the memories of that time are so vivid that I can still taste them and when people talk about experiences that are ‘character forming’ that time spent in Dallas and Texas as a whole was nothing short of utterly extraordinary. Among many other far more important things it made me an Oral Surgeon.
So in the last 2 weeks it’s been a joy and a pleasure to welcome Donal to our little practice in Nottingham to start the process of his own elective. I was asked by John Gibson in Glasgow if we could accommodate someone who was interested to come. Without hesitation I agreed. We helped set Donal up to do a couple of weeks at our practice and to open his eyes to a world that he had little exposure to before, before we sent him on with contact to the US to study further in Indianapolis. Donal finished his two weeks on Friday.
Welcoming people like elective students or work experience guys or even young dentists to visit is a planting process. You never know what might come back from that. You never know what might return. You never know who you might know, when they might come back, what you might receive for your kindness or empathy. And although you don’t do that for any reward, ultimately the rewards are huge. It has been nothing short of a joy to have Donal in the practice. He is a wonderful young man with a great attitude and outlook on life. Brilliant work ethic, a smile on his face every time you see him (even though he had to sit through a staff meeting were I was a ranting lunatic) It was wonderful to watch him at the very start of his career, gain some influences from some of the people in practice that will last him forever. During his 2 weeks with us he also got his exam results to find out that he safely negotiated forth year at dental school and his football team won the Europa league while he was on a free course dinner, drinking beer, with other dentists he had met for the first time.
What a trip!
I shook his hand on Thursday at the end of a CBCT course that he had attended the two days of and wished him on his way with more experience and knowledge in cone beam CT that probably 95% of the dental population in the UK. We will be sad to see him go.
The funny thing is the Donal might be back, or one of Donal’s friends or someone Donal speaks to. John Gibson might come back and ask us to take another dental student next year. He might ask us to speak in Glasgow or any number of things might happen. It might not happen from year to year and that’s ok, you plant the seeds and some germinate and some don’t. But it’s the planting of the seeds that is the wonderful experience.
On a crazy flip side to that coin though I got an email earlier on in the week from someone I haven’t heard from for over 10 years. This person is a lawyer from Leeds, were about the same age, she has extraordinary mind, as sharp as attack and as quick as lightening. Someone to be utterly admired and annoyingly gorgeous into the bargain. I used to work with her extensively in medical legal work during the days were I did quite a lot of that with the defence unions and out of the blue she contacted me and asked me to be an expert in a GDC case.
I phoned her up and how we laughed about my FTP history. I told her that as far as I was concerned I was black bold by the unions for providing expert reports due to my history which she poo pooed as utter rubbish. She quickly informed me that it was impossible for her to instruct an expert now that didn’t have an FTP history and she could only see an FTP history as an advantage to being an expert witness, because at least I would know the system. It was such a joy to speak to her and so refreshing to speak to someone that works within the system who has such an non conformist and disruptive view. I know exactly who I would want to represent me in a time of difficulty.
So that was just an unexpected harvest from a time when I planted seeds and worked with her in the past and tried my best to be my best and to help as much as possible. And when she found herself in a fix, I was asked to help. It remains to be seen whether I will even be allowed to be an expert in a GDC case again or whether the dates will work but there is a large part of me that really hopes it will. Because I think its time to cut down that tree that has been growing for quite a while.
The moral of the story though is to just keep plating because generally the harvest thing takes care of its self.
Blog Post Number - 1295