“when I grow up I want to be a baby doctor” at the time I didn’t know the official title for my goal was OBGYN. I remember saying this when I was 5 years old to my mother. Yet here I am. In the 11th grade, a junior at High Tech High Media Arts and beginning to think about my career path. Since I was 5 I have changed my goals a numerous amount of times, lately I have been thinking about the field of dentistry. At my school every 11th grader was given the chance to choose their internship. And given the circumstances I chose to work in a dental office. As it turns out I loved it! My favorite thing to do was prepare trays for the Dentist, it was nice knowing I contributed to the office and helped get the job done faster. I have accomplished an ample amount during my time spent at internship.
During my immersion Dr. Stevens (my mentor) taught me how to do fillings and crowns. I was able to do a tooth colored filling on a false tooth and I made a temporary crown on a clay mold of a mouth. Out of the work I did my favorite part was taking the mold of the tooth to get the temporary prepared. As I mixed the two putties together I felt as if I was in kindergarten once again it was moderately fun. When I looked at my final product I was not pleased with it even though my mentor said it was good for my first try. It was just that to me “good for a first time” not GREAT. But the mold came out almost perfect so I carried it around with pride that day.
Working with teeth isn’t the only thing I got to do while at internship. Since I was considering designing their new ad for their office I learned how marketing was important for business. During my lunch breaks I also realized how businesses could help each other survive. Dealing with our current economical crisis some dentist has been struggling because of the lack of dental insurance and people losing their jobs. Without money or insurance, a visit to the dentist is overlooked. In order to get business you must advertise your company and to draw in customers this office in particular gave people the “ New Patient Special” and because of their location, their advertising, and there special prices there able to build up a business in such a bad time economically.
With businesses thriving it was interesting to see that other businesses could actually help each other. During Lunch on days I was at my internship I realized I had a variety of places I could eat at most times the business was slow so I had a short wait but one day I was at Panera and saw a girl give a discount to a neighboring store employee then I thought to myself “this company probably is making profit right now, it seems as if the economy hasn’t even effected them as I would expect.” But as I realized how many companies have offices at liberty station it dawned on me that it was other companies who were keeping this particular store a float. And if every company looked out for each other we could grow as a nation.
At the end of the day the dental office is built off of education, relaxation, and communication. Everyday politics, science, and personal relations are all brought into the office but the main key to a successful office is balance. The office was such a vibrant place to be, full of happiness and joy. When it came to crunch time everybody knew how to handle a challenging task. Life in the office is pretty much…life. One action can affect a lot of different aspects of your work environment and knowing that I learned this through internships as a high school student makes me confident in myself to be thrown into the real world of work. And I wouldn’t trade that opportunity in for anything in the world.
