T Diddy :: Your Friendly Black Dentist

I have a life. However, my life is school. There is no more and do I do for fun. I say, "School."
What do you do at night? School! How about the weekends? School! How is everything? School is everything.

There is not a passing moment when I am not thinking about school. This semester they, they decided to through Dentistry in my face. It is a full 8 hour day of classes and lab. There is so much information that is presented in a day, I have to meet with the study group for 4-6 hours after 5 just to keep up and ensure that I will not be lost next lecture. This is not like anything I have ever encountered before. This even tops the 12-14 hour work days at Accenture. The positive here is that, the work put forth is very rewarding.

Many people do not understand Dental School or professional school. People tend to get upset because you cannot meet up with them for a weekend. Family may get mad because you cannot schedule a vacation 6 months in advance. Associates become annoyed because you have not placed a phone call to them for 1 year. They may have called only to be clicked over to voice mail because I will be in the middle of discussion about coagulate necrosis. This feeling is further enhanced because I will forget to call back when I get a free minute. In everyone of these scenarios, it is not like I do not want to interact. It is simply, "School!"

The best way to explain is to give a tangible example. In undergraduate studies, there are Engineer majors and communication majors. The amount of information that I receive in 2 - 4 weeks is equivalent to 1 semester of engineer and 1 year of communications per course. Simply put, this is not for the weak minded or faint of heart. There are many highs and lows with this path. All I can do is believe that in 2 years time, the sacrifice will be worth it.

It is Sunday morning and I must now eat and get ready to meet the study group. We have about 6-8 hours of studying to prepare for Monday.

I always try to find the positive in situations. There is always a lesson to be learned in every situation that a person is in. The only question is whether or not you have the honest objectivity to effectively analyze the passing events.

Since I left my job almost 4 years ago. I have had to tightly monitor my spending. I no longer have any disposable income. In fact, I have not had any income at all. When you have no income, you definitely cannot spend. I often joke that the man standing on the corner begging for money is worth more than me because of the tremendous amount of debt I am accumulating from returning back to a professional school. After two years of school, I will have accumulated more than $100,000. If you double that amount, you will have a crude estimate of my liability after 4 complete years of school. There is some irony that I am the one asked to contribute, "spare change," when in fact I have none to give. Needless to say, I have learned to very pragmatic and economical with expenses. And I truly believe that these years of struggle will greatly benefit me when my harvest arrives in a few years. Although times are rough now, I know that God will allow me to gain this wisdom to effectively manage my future finances.

With that said, Tracy and I went to Home Depot this past Friday night. Everybody knows that I am not a Home de Pot fan, but I wanted to price a space heater. The motivation was two energy and gas bills that were well over $250 that past 2 months. The price of gas is ridiculous and the price gouging is not right. I am refusing to pay this kind of money for something that should be 25% of that cost. If I could find an electric heater for less than $30 I could turn down the heat in the house during the night and during the day, Tracy can move it to the office where she works. We would only have the heat on for a few hours in the evening when we are in the living room.

I knew exactly what I was looking for. I wanted the same heater that I used on Benton street that caused my roommate cry foul. Home Depot had the heater I wanted. However, it was a damaged model that was out of the box. The retail price was $60, but with the severe damage, they would price it to no more than $20. I thought wrong. De Pot quoted me a price of $44. I asked if that was there best price and they confirmed. Did they really think that the damaged goods would really sell for that much. Home De Pot sucks.

Tracy and I headed to the world's best store, Target. There we found a brand new space furnace for $27. This was more than half off of the original price. I was so happy with this find, I did not stop talking about it for the rest of the night. I was so proud that I was continuing to practice sound economic financial management and pave the road to economic excellence. Life presents opportunity in every situation and it is our responsibility to seize them. I am no longer being squeezed. I am doing the squeezing!