I hope I'm not late :)

Mine happened 2 years ago during my 2nd year in the Doctor of Dental Medicine course. My goal was to finish the dentures of my patient in our Complete Prosthodontics class. It’s one of our requirements before we can advance to the 3rd year level or before we can start our clinical duties. I cannot remember the exact number but at most, there were 25 of us in class. Other class sections or students would tell us that we were at a disadvantage because our instructor was a perfectionist and meticulous in details. Many had fallen into his hands and never advanced on time, others chose to transfer schools. And yeah I heard stories about that.

That semester, I started late in my case because I was only able to find a patient after 1 and a half month. It wasn’t easy looking for a patient who agrees to stay with you the whole semester. I said the whole semester because we have to do it systematically and every step our instructor would explain and demonstrates how to do it. Not to mention we only meet a few times a week.

By the end of the semester, only a few of us finished the case and I’m not one of them. Now we only have the Short-term or the completion term to finish our case. It’s a two months interval before the start of another semester.

The first month was over and some already finished their cases. At least ten of us were still busy doing our cases. Until slowly, others started not to show up. It was frustrating knowing that they already gave up and were already planning to transfer school next semester and two decided to drop it and enroll again next year. They were blaming our instructor, talking shits and stuff about him. I wanted to blame him too during those times. I’m not bragging but most of my classmates and even other instructors would tell me I’m doing a good job with how I set the teeth and appreciated how neatly I do things. That’s why I questioned myself why can’t I finish this. Why is it difficult to pass this when I’m already doing a good job? Yeah, I really wanted to blame him, to curse him but I just can’t. Though I act as if I’m blaming him to satisfy my classmates but all that was running in my mind was curses against myself. I blamed myself. I hated myself.

Then the short term ended two weeks earlier than expected. Our instructor told us he needed to take a leave for two weeks. Before he left, he assured us that we could continue our case until next semester. I was upset though because I was almost done.

The regular semester started and my instructor allowed me to advance to 3rd year but can only start clinical duties on prosthodontics after I finish my long-running case. I accepted his offer since I’m almost finished. Just a few more appointments with my patient and I’m done. Then something unexpected happened. My patient’s son contacted me and said that her mother suffered a mild stroke and currently at the hospital. It was a sad news and unfortunately, for me, I don’t know what to do anymore. I felt sorry for my patient. She was kind to me and she really wanted me to finish my case.

I’m not a strong-willed person, and what happened to my patient took the last stroke of motivation I have. I wanted to stop. I wanted to quit and maybe change schools. The constant conflict of compliment and rejection was overwhelming.

I went to tell my instructor about my situation and unluckily for me, I have to start all over again. With the little determination I had and the push my friends gave, I decided to complete my goal. Fortunately that day, a patient came looking for someone who could fabricate her a set of dentures. I talked to her and she agreed happily. I started my case from the start again and my instructor was meticulous as ever. It was frustratingly enough that I started a new case again and this time I was the only one working. The others just stopped.

While doing my new case, I felt that somehow it was going smoothly and a little faster than before. I guessed this was the result of having made to repeat many procedures during my first case. By the end of the semester, I was able to finish my patient’s dentures and got myself a “very good” remark from my instructor.

I was glad I didn’t quit nor stayed depressed because I learned a lot during those periods and was able to improve my skills both in the clinical aspect and in handling problems.

Yes, it was a requirement. A common goal for that subject. But for me, that goal became much sweeter because of the obstacles I had faced just to reach it.