When I look back on the first quarter of dental school, I think of Seattle weather. I definitely had days where I was frustrated, days where I thought the rainstorm would never end. With 35 credits in one quarter, it was a struggle to find time to study everything. I had to learn to choose the most important information in each class to learn because there was simply not enough time to remember everything.
I found that the key to success is planning ahead of time and working together as a class. Being a part of RIDE was especially advantageous in this regard because you are with such a small class and you really get to know the faculty. Not only do you get to work closely with your dental classmates, you get a lot of interaction with the EWU hygiene and UW medical students on campus, which is not available in Seattle. One class that we take with the medical students is ICM. I started out not really understanding why I had to spend 2.5 hours a week in a class that seemed to only focus on medicine, but as time went on, I realized how useful this class will be for me in the future. We learn the medical language, skills to efficiently collect data from a patient interview, etc.
Although the rainy days were tough to get through, the beautiful summer days would follow. After getting through a long week of tests, I sometimes felt defected, but I also felt like I have really accomplished something. This sense of accomplishment is even more profound after finishing our last final. I feel like I have overcome a huge challenge and the long nights of study meant something. I also feel that I got so much more out of dental anatomy in Spokane than I would have in Seattle. We had a lot of personal attention and we had a lab for us to practice waxing in whenever we wanted. Furthermore, the gross anatomy lab facilities are wonderful and well ventilated. We never had to go home smelling like formaldehyde, which was great.
All in all, RIDE has its ups and downs just like Seattle has its months of crappy weather, but when the sun comes up, it always makes up for it. Despite how the program has some incontinuities with the Seattle courses and we have to go to school for an extended period of time, I am really glad that I get to be a part of the unique concept behind the program.
