Humans of TUSDM: Grace Davis (D26)

In the blur of what dental school can feel like, “Humanizing TUSDM" is a project created by Yenna Chu (D27) to remind us of our shared humanity and the special stories that make us who we are. The project hopes for members of the Tufts Dental community to find comfort in knowing they are not alone on this journey and to help build new connections through storytelling.

“After undergrad, I packed up my bags and moved 11 hours away from my closest family to a small town called Boone, North Carolina where I knew nobody. I had gone through some really hard times. Both of my parents passed away during my first year of undergrad. I really struggled throughout undergrad trying to figure out who I was after that loss, so I took a year off school and moved out to the middle of nowhere.

I had this amazing apartment where the balcony overlooked this beautiful mountain. In the mornings I’d wake up and go do yoga, sit there, and look out at the mountains and breathe, as simple as that.

I knew I wanted to go to dental school and had already sent in my applications, but I wanted to work at dental offices in this small town. I ended up getting hired by Dr. Blaire Warren and she’s a huge inspiration to me. I was an office manager there and I’m so glad I did it. I am now the Vice President of the TUSDM Dental Billing and Insurance student organization because of the work I did in office administration. I learned so much about what it’s like at the back end of practices. The lessons I learned in leading a practice, being a doctor’s right hand, and working with insurance companies, are the most valuable experiences I’ve had.

The town of Boone is where I also started my spin instructor journey. I got into spin as an undergrad. First, I was a D1 cheerleader and when I left cheer, I was like what can I do to channel all this energy I have? I started taking spin classes at a local place and then I ended up moving in with the studio owner as their full-time live-in nanny. Every day I would go down to the garage and spin on her bike and pretend like I was teaching a class.

Even though it was all new, I wanted to take that next step and go out of my comfort zone. I applied to be a spin instructor… having never instructed before, and they were like ‘Sure, you can hit schedule next week!’ I actually had no clue what I was doing, and I realized that when I moved to Boston and auditioned at the HandleBar (HB) studio.

When I first started dental school, I took an HB class and told them I wanted to audition as an instructor. I auditioned, got the job and began intense training.

While we were going through Clinical Anatomy, I had to ride twice a day, every day, on top of a 2-hour training session each day. I was so stressed out, but at the end of the day, I genuinely think if I didn’t have HB in my life, I would be so crazy. It’s the best part of Boston for me. I love the community that I’ve built and I have such amazing riders who show up for me, support me, and lift me up on my down days.

Tuesday (March 19th) was my Dad’s birthday. I simply didn’t want to wake up and didn’t want to go to school that day. I was teaching my 6:15 am class so I was legally obligated to wake up. When I showed up for work, I was reminded again just how much spin and teaching can lift me up, make me so confident in myself, and make me feel so strong… it just brings out the best things about me and the best things about Boston.

Balancing is definitely a challenge. It takes a lot of agenda work and dedication, but it’s still very much worth it.”

If you are interested in sharing your story, please fill out the form here!