Way back in 1982, I finished the dental program at Indiana University and immediately started working for a general dentist. I learned some basics that were unteachable in a classroom or even in an internship. Some lessons can only be well-learned as they happen in real life, as they happen while you work through them. It's called experience. The first dentist I worked for was very particular. We had specific black pens that were used for charting. There was not a blue pen to be found in the office. As a matter of fact, blue pens were strictly forbidden.

Given that this was my first job in the dental field, I assumed that all subsequent positions would have the same "rules." I assumed that my next position would have the same requirements. And well, really, I assumed that I would work there - at that same office - forever and retire from that first job at the ripe old age of sixty-five. I naively thought that all bosses were created equal, that what I learned at my first gig would be transferrable to my next. And some of it was, but most of it was not. I soon found out that the black pen was not a requirement but merely a preference.

But what had happened over a course of three years was that I had become permanently attached to black ink. Even today, almost thirty years later, I cannot bring myself to seriously use anything but black ink. I have red pens and blue pens that I have tried to use but my penchant had been set. My proclivity to gravitate toward black is almost set in stone. But given that acceptance is the first step toward recovery, perhaps there is still hope.

It is easy to close off and say "I only like it this way" or "I don't need to try it any other way." Yes, a die may be cast, but interestingly enough, molds are made to be broken. As are bad habits and misconceptions. Acceptance that one might be wrong might be difficult, but living with such limited experience and knowledge would be worse. Thinking you know all you need to know or that you have experienced all you need to experience is short-sighted and lazy.

Yes, new thoughts make you think. Go figure. And new practices take work but, and this is how I look at it, if it were easy everyone would be doing it. And since I am not everybody, that may be just enough impetus to make me buy and use a new box of blue pens. Anyone for some tic-tac-toe?


by rayannethorn