I still remember my father coming home on Saturdays wearing the blue coat from his dental practice in Upper Manhattan on Nagle Avenue. Occasionally, he let me go to work with him and I would sit in the office eating chicken nuggets or crushed ice with syrup, watching him work. The way he loved his patients and they loved him back left an indelible mark on my soul.
Although my childhood experiences prepared me for a dental career, I ended up at Boston University as a Biomedical Engineering major. Before graduation, I secured a consulting position in New York at IBM where I met my future husband, Mike. He quickly recognized I was a fish out of water as he said, “You don’t belong here. You’re too smart. What do you REALLY want to do?”
After my father’s unexpected passing in March of 2003, my career at IBM was no longer enough. I felt like I was missing out on my calling to become a dentist. Before long, I entered the Post-baccalaureate Premedical Program at Columbia University in preparation for dental school.
With my father gone, I became the breadwinner for my family. Chasing my dental dream involved working, going to classes, and borrowing all the money I needed for schooling. I would wake up at 4:30am, commute to Brooklyn to work until 4pm, commute to Morningside Heights, attend classes, and be on the 12:30am bus to Clifton.
After my father’s unexpected passing in March of 2003, my career at IBM was no longer enough. I felt like I was missing out on my calling to become a dentist. Before long, I entered the Post-baccalaureate Premedical Program at Columbia University in preparation for dental school.
With my father gone, I became the breadwinner for my family. Chasing my dental dream involved working, going to classes, and borrowing all the money I needed for schooling. I would wake up at 4:30am, commute to Brooklyn to work until 4pm, commute to Morningside Heights, attend classes, and be on the 12:30am bus to Clifton.
After many years of pursuing my dream, I am now able to create the practice my father never had the opportunity to build. He came to this country with $8 in his pocket, a wife, and a baby. Relentless, he worked incredibly hard to become a dentist in the United States and eventually bring all his siblings to the land of opportunity.
I carry my father’s memory with me every day. He modeled a love for patients that inspires how I treat everyone I serve. My daughter Evangeline will never truly know the man who forever shaped the course of my life, but she and others will hopefully see his powerful imprint through my life.
She and her husband Michael have been married for ten years and live with their daughter Evangeline, her mother, and their cat Gizmo in northern New Jersey. She loves being a mom, spending time with her family, training with kettlebells, reading, crocheting, knitting, and binge watching sci-fi shows and movies.
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Livingston Family Orthodontics
201 S. Livingston Ave, Suite 2B
Livingston, NJ 07039
(973) 758-8926
