Back to School Again: School? What?

So our good friend Jay came down back in September and visited us for an afternoon/evening on the town down here in sunny Galveston. He'd briefly met James before when Natalie was in Utah to see Stef off for her mission. James loved him and, from what I could tell, he loved James also. We spent some time chatting about how our lives have been going and later went to Fudruckers on the strand (where I devoured a long-craved buffalo chicken sandwich - seriously everyone needs to go eat one of these like right now) for dinner. Even later, we went to La King's Confectionery for some shakes/fudge/etc and then we did a bit of window shopping (and by shopping I mean browsing because we can't afford stuff). It was a very enjoyable evening, polished off by some ice-cold Abita root beers. Me and Natalie (myself in particular) aren't always the best at keeping in touch with people but we do love to visit with our old friends when we get the chance.

Jay, Natalie, James and myself at La King's

So anyways when we were talking to Jay it came to my attention that my previous blog post was ambiguous regarding my life plans. I apologize for this lapse in clarity (or relapse, if you prefer). Here's the lowdown: When I was preparing for my DMA (doctorate in musical arts - basically a doctoral performance degree) auditions/interviews, I realized that my reason for wanting to do a DMA was because I wanted to be able to support my family and keep playing the tuba. The idea was to support my family by playing the tuba. But then I realized I could do something else for a living and still play the tuba. For a number of reasons, I determined that a career in music was not what I really wanted (pay, work schedule, job security, ability to live near family, etc). Natalie and I brainstormed all the career paths we could think of and the one that appealed to me the most (by a long shot) was dentistry. I have a grandfather and an uncle who are dentists and it has always been an attractive field to me for a number of reasons, including but not limited to pay, work/family balance, job security, ability to work with your hands, prestige, ability to choose where to work, being a small business owner.

So I cancelled all of my DMA auditions and focused on making the most of my last semester at UGA since this would be the end of my formal music education. Natalie did a bunch of research into how to get into dental school and we made a long term plan: We would move back to Texas, I would get a job for a year so we could save up money and I could regain in-state status (and therefore save tons of money on tuition), I would start from scratch and take the core science classes required as prerequisites for dental school, and then I apply to dental school. As one might justifiably assume, the plan also includes getting accepted, completing dental school and enjoying a successful career in dentistry.

After going to Philmont last summer I applied for some jobs and was fortunate to find work in Galveston at ANICO (American National Insurance Corporation) in the Annuities department as a transfer processor. My job was to handle paperwork related to the transfer of funds into annuities at ANICO. I spent my time reviewing paperwork, organizing it to be signed by corporate officers, reorganizing it to be mailed and/or faxed, and following up with any further requirements needed to get the funds transferred to ANICO. When I was two weeks into training on September 16, 2013, I got a call in the middle of lunch from my mother-in-law telling me it was time to head up to Spring because James was on his way. So full time work and fatherhood came at me at basically the same time. It was crazy but it was actually very exciting too.

Here's where I worked.

Like I said, I was only planning to work for a year and then I would go back to school. So I left my Job at ANICO mid-August this year and then began taking pre-requisites for Dental school at Galveston College. The semester has been pretty intense so far. I'm taking 16 hours of courses that people normally advise students not to take simultaneously: Chemistry 1, Biology 1, Physics 2, and Anatomy & Physiology. So far, so good.

Aside from the work skills and experience I developed at ANICO, there are some things I learned about myself that I have been able to use to help me in my studies. One thing I noticed during graduate school is that I have days every now and again where my brain is just totally fried and I can't seem to focus on anything for more than 20 minutes at a time. To combat this, I would use a stopwatch to give myself 25 minutes to study or practice followed by 5 minutes of reading from a comic book or watching something on YouTube or whatever. Unfortunately, I was unable to use this method to stay productive while I was at ANICO due to intermittent surveillance by management. Instead, I had to find ways to keep busy for hours at a time. I discovered that listening to certain types of music helps me to focus. Due to my background in music, I can't listen to classical music without thinking pretty deeply about it. This occasionally happens with more popular music as well, especially Jazz and other improvisation-based musics. Long story short, I learned at ANICO that sometimes I can't concentrate unless I'm listening to Radiohead.

Another thing I learned from working at ANICO is that, if I can exercise self-control at the beginning of the day to keep away from distractions, I will have a pretty easy time of staying focused for the rest of the day. So if I start out a study session by taking a break, that study session is not likely to be very productive. I saw a fortune cookie once that exemplifies this: "Laziness is resting before you are tired." So when I rest before I've done a decent amount of mental exertion, I'm embracing a state of mind that will prevent me from being able to do what needs to be done. This is probably why it takes me a day or so to recover mentally from the prolonged laziness of binge-watching TV.

Other lessons from ANICO that have helped me in school: Skipping meals and overeating both make it hard to focus/remain conscious, having a new baby makes it difficult to impossible to achieve and maintain consciousness, PTO is awesome, getting paid for overtime is awesome, mandatory overtime on Saturdays is not awesome, and I really really don't want to work under 4+ levels of management for the rest of my life.

My biggest challenges at school so far have been time management and learning how to actually read my textbooks. I've never actually had to keep up with assigned textbook readings in order to do well in my classes, and there was one advanced music history course I took at BYU where I did better on exams when I didn't spend my time reading the textbook. I know that reading my books this semester isn't actually necessary for me to do well in these classes either, but I'm not learning stuff just for the exams I have in the next few weeks; I'm trying to prepare for an exam that I won't be taking for a year and a half that will be cumulative on almost everything I come across in my classes until then, including all those fun bits of knowledge that can be found only by reading the textbooks. Furthermore, I'm pretty sure that an improved ability to learn from textbooks will be necessary for me to do well in dental school.

My favorite study spot at the Moody Medical Library

Fun facts!

1. Last year being the only exception, I've been in school every year since Kindergarten in September of 1995. 
2. Starting this semester I am a 19th grader.
3. This will be my 21st year of school if you count Head Start and Kindergarten.
4. Based on my calculations, I only have 6 or 7 more years of school to go until I'm done! 
5. When I graduate dental school, I will have spent about 27 years of my life in school.
6. I have been playing the tuba for 10 years now.

Coming soon: Halloween Mix 2014 and Philmont 2013!

Thanks for reading!