REFLECTIONS
Let’s Talk About Perspective By Amisha Singh, DDS
A
s I type this out, I am coasting at 477 mph at a
to force my hand. But now, with my 20/20 hindsight, I see all the paths that
breathtaking 38,000 feet in my first flight since
had to align to bring me the joy I have now. Some of the paths were amazing
the pandemic started. As someone who once
(I will remember the December 1st call accepting me to my dream school for
considered Denver International Airport a second home,
the rest of my life.) But others felt like losses at the time. I remember grieving
this is a little bit like a step back into another life, complete
those losses and wondering “why?”.
with equal parts excitement and anxiety. I look out over the patchwork landscape of beautiful Colorado, my forever home, taking in a familiar sight
I type this to remind you (and myself), the why may not be evident in the
which I hope I will not take for granted again. And I think about perspective.
moment, but it shows itself eventually. So far, this has not failed. I am standing on the mountain with complete visibility so I can say that easily now. I am
I spent the weekend at a family wedding in Atlanta and there we had
joyous now. But in my sorrow, it was not always easy to trust the universe, to
numerous conversations about life over the past two years. Two years is a
trust that I would know the why behind what felt like an unmeasurable loss.
fairly long time for my large, extended, Indian family to go without seeing each other so there was plenty to catch up on. One of my cousins decided to leave a career in health care. Another is moving across state lines and leaving a newborn niece she thinks of as a daughter. As I heard about life trajectories of cousin after cousin, job changes and moves
When I mentor students and younger dentists, so often, I hear them lament
"Life turns aren’t binary- good or bad, happy or sad. They are amalgamations of a multitude of emotions, and sometimes, as humans we do not know where to place them."
over the length of their journey. They ask “why?” too. Why did I have to take that gap year? Why did I major in engineering first? Why did that practice fall through? Why did it take me so long to realize that I love public health? As I hear them, I think of all the times I asked myself these questions. It brings
and weddings and transitions, I
me right back to this plane. See, when I travel from ATL to DEN, I do not
could not help but think how unexpected are some changes. Changes like the
complain about the three hours of my day I spent on this flight. I do not see
pandemic, your favorite dental assistant quitting over lunch, family illnesses,
this as a waste of my time. I recognize that I need the time to travel the miles.
acceptance to dental school, buying a practice, changes filled with joy and
I need to spend this time on a flight, traveling the journey, to return home. In
sorrow alike, often come out of nowhere. They feel like an accost to your life,
fact, I trust a plane is flying the quickest route possible to get me home. So why
to your balance, to all the places you knew you were destined to be. They
can we not trust the same of the journey of our lives? Every path we travel,
can feel like a win wrapped up in a loss, or vice versa. They are unexpected
every turn we take, is necessary to give us an important piece of ourselves, to
and emotionally turbulent and sometimes a dichotomy. And that is okay. Life
bring us home. This path will wind and sometimes meander, but it will always
turns aren’t binary- good or bad, happy or sad. They are amalgamations of a
bring us home… to our dream jobs, to the best version of who we are, to who
multitude of emotions, and sometimes, as humans we do not know where to
we will eventually become.
place them. Humans like buckets. Buckets feel safe, reliable and predictable and we want to compartmentalize and categorize to gain access to that
So, as we start the descent to DIA, and I take in the patchwork quilt of land
stability. But changes are, by their very definition, unstable.
which lies beneath me, watching tufts of clouds cast shadows and glide past, I want to anchor this memory. I want to remember what it feels like to see all
I think about my own life path and how I had no idea that academic medicine
the whys, trust the universe, and feel like home is approaching. May we never
would be my ideal work. I think about the journey I took to get here and how
forget this feeling of coming home.
I did not always willingly cross the paths on that journey. Sometimes life had
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4th Quarter 2021 mddsdentist.com
