A day in their scrubs
Meet D2 Chris Gonzales
Chris Gonzales is a joker. Voted D2 Class Clown, he isn’t shy about sharing his love for his classmates. From what he tells us, breaking into impromptu cheers and even song is a regular occurrence for the Class of 2016 — especially before exams.
Hometown: Laredo, Texas, born and raised
Dental school survival strategy: It’s about your attitude, your perspective on things. Sometimes I think, “How much do I want to study for this test?” Then I ask myself, “In a couple months I’ll have patients. What kind of care do I want to be able to give them?”
Most productive time of day: I’m definitely not a morning person. For some reason I can’t seem to get motivated to study until it’s dark outside. It’s really bad after daylight saving time in the spring.
Best way to unwind after a long day in lecture or lab: I like to cook, but I wouldn’t say that I have a favorite way. I get on kicks or little fads. I have a roommate — D2 Obi Nwankwo — and we buy all of our kitchen stuff. We keep adding on to it. One weekend we got a grill, and we grilled for a month. We got a slow cooker and used that for month. We have two deep fryers. Then there was the George Foreman grill; we used that for a while, too.
Favorite energy food: Anything sweet when I’m on campus. I’ll get a dessert, ice cream or sometimes just chocolate milk.
Goal after graduation: That’s still up for grabs. Right now I’m leaning towards going back home to Laredo. My whole family is there, and Laredo does desperately need dentists. It’s a great place to go learn. There are close to 10 dentists that have been practicing for 25-30 years. One of them is very encouraging. He said if he could repeat his career all over again he would have headed straight home to Laredo after dental school.
What people may not know about you: The way I act is the way I am. But I really do love my class. I’m so lucky that I got into this school with this class at this time. I’m really proud to call them classmates and friends. I think it’s incredible the way this group gels together. It’s uplifting. Despite all these tests, it makes you want to come to school to see them. I think it spreads to people we see — our professors, the new D1s that come in. We all like to applaud and clap and cheer just for no reason. I think we did a “We will Rock You” chant right before our last test.