A Fond Farewell

Oklahoma City, Edmond, El Reno, Geary, Canton, Watonga, Kremlin, Hollis, Fairview, South Coffeyville, Bixby, Owasso, Tahlequah, Cookson, Moore, Newcastle, Chickasha, Ft. Cobb, Pauls Valley, Ardmore, Choctaw, McAlester, Cherokee, Woodward, Altus, Hollis.

In 9 months, I have seen more of Oklahoma than the past 11 years I've lived here. It's hard to believe that my last official day to work as a lead dental assistant on the Oklahoma Dental Foundation's mobile dental unit has passed. Words cannot begin to express how privileged I feel to have had the unique opportunity to travel on the state's only mobile dental unit while providing free treatment to those in need.

I still remember when I first accepted the position and the level of my excitement as I blogged about it. Since then, my passion for dentistry has only managed to grow larger with each and every outing. My exposure to the dental community has been amazing. I've had the opportunity to sit in on Access to Care meetings with prominent professionals discussing serious oral health issues in our state. Working alongside such a wide variety of dental professionals has provided me a great insight to many different personalities and practice philosophies, each giving me a better of idea of the type of practitioner I aspire to be. The experiences I've gained from my time on the van have been absolutely priceless. I even had a short staff bio published in the Oklahoma Dental Association's journal and with any luck, it won't be my last appearance too!

I've always loved working with kids and my time on the van has been no exception. The brilliance of the range of personalities that these kids possess never ceases to amaze me. One of my favorite memories from the van was from a day we worked in South Coffeyville. Now just to give you an idea of where that is, Coffeyville can be found in Kansas. Yup, Kansas. So after being a wonderful patient, this little girl hops up out of the chair, walks back to her anxious classmates and nonchalantly states, "Don't worry. They didn't hurt me so they won't hurt you.". My heart melted right there and then.

Another of my favorite stories from the van comes from a day when I was not working. A little girl nervously waiting to be treated longingly stared through the van's rear window at her classmates having recess on the playground. As she excitedly waved at her friends, she shouted out, "Help! I'm trapped on the dental van!" The doctor turned around with a "Hey!" while the girl coyly added, ".. with very nice people!" Haha, I totally wish I could have been there!

I'll always cherish my time with the ODF and the friends I've made from both the ODF and the ODA. I'll miss the thrill of rummaging through piles of donations and finding boxes of my favorite gloves. I'll miss walking into a small town diner and seeing the many locals come together as a community over shared meals. I'll miss the times falling asleep in the passenger chair to the soothing sounds of Jake whistling away to the radio and the bungeed equipment rattling in the back.

Jake and I have talked about this several times and we both agree that probably one of the most exciting things about our history with the Foundation is the prospect of returning to this program and volunteering our time and service. It's when I hear stories from the site coordinators of kids speaking so highly of their time on the van where everybody was so nice. Or of parents breaking down in tears being so very thankful that their kids were able to receive the treatment they so desperately needed. I've easily lost track of the number of miles I've driven and the number of hours spent on the road away from family and friends. But they're easily replaced by fond memories of the thank yous, the large grins and happy smiles, and the countless high fives.