The answer is not quite what you’d expect.
We actually met at the University of Arkansas in pre-dental classes. Anatomy and Physiology to be exact. ? We both, at that time, were dental assistants and we had our own paths that led us to our focus to go to dental school. Our mutual excitement for dentistry was, in a way, what did bring us together but that happened well before dental school. In fact, when Dr. Alex graduated undergrad, he was offered an opportunity he couldn’t refuse…as a Pipeline Welder!
Dr. Alex moved to Colorado and worked the pipeline for several years and in many states. It was an amazing experience but when we decided we were ready to start a family it wasn’t the career that we saw ourselves in for our future. So we said, “Hey remember when we wanted to be Dentists? Let’s do that!” Making a very complicated situation sound easy, we applied to University of Missouri Dental School and we were both accepted! (Arkansas does not have a dental school so we had to go out of state, enter hillbilly teeth joke here ?)
Our oldest son, Kale was only 10 months old on our first day of dental school and as if that was not hard enough, we decided we wanted to have another child so our third of the four years of school we had our second son, Booker. When we graduated, Kale was four and Booker, one. Being that Alex and I were both from Arkansas, our intention was to always move back to our home state after dental school.
Through our entire senior year of dental school, we drove back and forth to Arkansas trying to find the right situation for our family to settle but never found the right fit that we felt comfortable or excited about. A friend and colleague of ours reached out to us to let us know about a dentist in the Niceville area that was looking to sell his practice and retire. It seemed like a total stretch for us to even consider such an adventure but we flew down to visit and immediately fell in love with the area. It checked all our boxes: family friendly, small-town feel, great schools for the kids and an amazing dental practice with hardworking patients that we can serve. We have never regretted our move to Florida but we are still Razorbacks at heart! Go Hogs!