Richard Morgan, DDS SCD

It was a seemingly normal day in the fifth grade.
Mr. Zirkle was supposed to be giving a lesson on Greek mythology that day, but instead was comparing tensions between Luke, Han, and Leia to the love triangle between Ares, Hephaestus, and Aphrodite… because well, the force was always with him. I was several hours late to school as I so slyly walked into the classroom, having just come back not only from a major appointment at Dr. Morgan’s private practice but ALSO from JCPenney’s to pick up some cool new prescriptive shades.
Yes, it’s true and I’m not ashamed to say it… I got braces and glasses on the same freakin’ day in the fifth grade. Super hot, I know. In all seriousness though, every two weeks I’d go to Dr. Morgan and leave with a new pattern of colored rubber bands on my braces… I really was the coolest girl in the whole entireeeeeee school.
BLUE /​RED /​WHITE /​BLUE /​RED /​WHITE
… for when I was feeling patriotic.
NEON-​PINK /​NEON-​YELLOW /​NEON-​ORANGE
…when I wanted attention.
PINK /​RED /​PINK /​RED /​PINK /​RED
…when I started crushing on, Kyle, the super cute boy who sat in the desk in front me.
It was looking at a Magic Eye image and trying to figure out what the hell these multi-​colored specs were supposed to be. Sometimes you clearly understood… sometimes it was blurry… and sometimes you just pretended to know what was going on, but really you’re super dizzy and have a huge headache because you can’t stop crossing your eyes from staring.
3 ½ years later, a moment long awaited but certainly long worth the wait… my braces came off and my teeth were perfectly straight and white and I couldn’t stop licking them because they felt so smooth and slick and just wow.
Another 8 years have passed since that glorious day, and I’m smiling everywhere all the time: CHEEEEEEESE: because I am so proud of the smile that Dr. Morgan helped me achieve.
Thanks for the braces. Thanks for making me cool in school. Thanks for being so damn persistant about my wearing that stupid retainer for so long after getting the braces off. I’d probably be seeing you again now if you hadn’t.