- #1
scratchman287
Hello, my name is Neil, and I am just three months shy of my 60th birthday. I am a dentist who is retired from active practice but still works part-time as a consultant. I interrupted my dental consulting career to be a programmer for a few years. I am married for 30+ years and have three adult children. All this begs the question: “Dude, what are you doing here?” Caution: absurdly long new member intro follows.
At eight years old I took a wrong turn when I declared I wanted to be a dentist. Our family dentist had taken me into his dental laboratory and shown me all the cool equipment, then gave me a stack of pink baseplate wax (https://tinyurl.com/y7z7x3em). That did it for me. I’ve told everyone since who asks why I became a dentist, and I tell them, “Pink baseplate wax”.
Now, looking back over my life, I realize that I should have gone into math & physics. I’m still captivated by both subjects, but my development so far wouldn’t even rank me as an amateur mathematician or amateur physicist; more like the dopey kid looking into the classroom through the classroom door window. I hope to change that.
My goal is to relearn math and physics on my own up to the level of a 1st year college student, then enroll in my alma mater (I still live in the vicinity) to get my B.S. in Physics. My B.S. in Bio should provide most of the LA&S credits towards the degree, so I should be able to concentrate on just math and physics classes. I’m going to do this for its own sake: I have no illusions that a recently minted 65+ year old physics major has excellent job prospects, but as a dentist I can work as a dental consultant until I drop. No, my goal is learn it because I love it, and there is no better way to keep my mind sharp than to engage in this subject.
If you’ve read this far, thank you for your indulgence in my verbosity.
At eight years old I took a wrong turn when I declared I wanted to be a dentist. Our family dentist had taken me into his dental laboratory and shown me all the cool equipment, then gave me a stack of pink baseplate wax (https://tinyurl.com/y7z7x3em). That did it for me. I’ve told everyone since who asks why I became a dentist, and I tell them, “Pink baseplate wax”.
Now, looking back over my life, I realize that I should have gone into math & physics. I’m still captivated by both subjects, but my development so far wouldn’t even rank me as an amateur mathematician or amateur physicist; more like the dopey kid looking into the classroom through the classroom door window. I hope to change that.
My goal is to relearn math and physics on my own up to the level of a 1st year college student, then enroll in my alma mater (I still live in the vicinity) to get my B.S. in Physics. My B.S. in Bio should provide most of the LA&S credits towards the degree, so I should be able to concentrate on just math and physics classes. I’m going to do this for its own sake: I have no illusions that a recently minted 65+ year old physics major has excellent job prospects, but as a dentist I can work as a dental consultant until I drop. No, my goal is learn it because I love it, and there is no better way to keep my mind sharp than to engage in this subject.
If you’ve read this far, thank you for your indulgence in my verbosity.
