I view it as just a job or a way to earn a living because there are other things in life that are more important to me: friends and family. I don't think a career or a job can satisfy you nor can it bring you happiness. Only personal growth and relationships can do that.That being said, I grew up around the dental field my entire life and I have come to view the profession differently than other people.
You're getting to my point. There is huge semantic and ethical distinction between a job and a profession.
Profession - Wikipedia
Being a professional, by definition, requires a (lifelong) commitment to learning/self-improvement and having a special trust relationship with the people you serve. A proper doctor-patient relationship is so much more meaningful than a business one (as with an ordinary job). Are you sure you don't think you could get any satisfaction or happiness from the work of a dental professional? Perhaps you know a lot dentists who are not satisfied with what they do, but I don't think there is any harm in opening yourself to the potential of moral satisfaction as you start becoming a dentist. Why would the importance of your friends and family in your life have to preclude being happy in your work?
There are thousands of jobs out there that could potentially call to predents...how can you be so certain that it's your calling? Perhaps becoming a dentist is enough? Anyways, concluding that my perception of dentistry is one of the two things you listed isn't sophisticated enough.
I'm not talking about, like, a religious calling specifically to dentistry...although I suppose some people may see things that way too. In my case, I just feel that I'm morally compelled to serve other people, and given the skills that I have and my idea of a balanced life, I thought dentistry made a lot of sense. It's about the meaning of the work.
And no, I wouldn't judge you like that because I think we're operationalizing different definitions of "job." (I suppose I should clarify that I was talking about financial savviness there.) However, if truly you do not care about finding happiness or satisfaction in your work, then why wouldn't you choose an easier way to make money?
You are either not a dentist, or have not been a dentist very long. The fact that you don't understand something does not make me wrong. You and I are coming from different perspectives, and as an elder statesman, my opinion is as valid as anyone elses. Your attack on anyone who does not hold your ideas and opinions to be genuinely true demonstrates your inability to engage in any type of constructive discussion. You have misconstrued my description of life as a dentist as just a job. I like being a dentist. The work is interesting, and often challenging, especially when you are working on the toughest types of cases. But it is certainly not all encompassing. At the end of the day it is left at the office/hospital. And BTW, I am not disenchanted with my work, in fact it is more exciting now than it was when I first started out.
Yikes...looks like I accidentally lit a powder keg. I was writing a response to other general ideas in the thread , not to your post--although I see how it looks like I quoted you.
My main point was that I can't imagine how anything besides an extraordinary sense of professional duty could justify the otherwise irrational financial decision of taking on a half-million dollars of student debt. If you went to dental school when it was considered a rational financial investment, then this must at least partially explain the difference in our perspectives, no?
