I have done many things that I regret, but most of them were for good reasons, even when things didn’t work out quite the way I hoped they would. However there is ONE decision I made that was DUMB and my reason for doing it was also DUMB. If I could go back and change it, I would

I had an unusually large amount of wisdom teeth that fully erupted. When I was 17, my orthodontist noted my unusually high number by joking that I was 25 years old according to my teeth. Sadly for me, this comment stuck with me and had a strange affect on my decision making...

I don’t blame anyone for it. Neither my orthodontist or myself knew at that time that I would be “cursed” to look much younger than my actual age, even when wearing makeup or that it would add to being Black and a woman to magnify my problem with being taken seriously ...

So neither of us anticipated that my wisdom teeth would become my talisman, something that I just couldn’t let go of as I fought to be treated as an ADULT with credentials. The fact that by the time I turned 30, I had 8 fully erupted wisdom teeth, with 2 impacted was a magic gift

that I was reminded of approximately every 6 months, by a week of pain, when I could barely talk bc my entire mouth was swollen, but I worked around it. Honestly, at that time I talked so much anyway that everyone benefited from my self-imposed forced weeks of silence ...

But I looked toward the future and realized that the pain was getting worse and that I might not have such a high pain threshold forever, so I had them pulled when I was 30. Most of them . I insisted on keeping 2 of them. I did my research prior to making the decision, and...

learned that, though I would still have attempted eruptions, they would not be as regularly and the pain should be manageable. Most importantly, I would still be older according to my wisdom teeth . So I kept 2. They give me problems about every 18 months or so, and I WAS ok...

with that. Until this morning when I realized that I the pain I experienced yesterday, and, thankfully to a much smaller extent so far today, is the most unnecessary pain anyone ever experiences!!! I did a dumb thing for a dumb reason . I want them all gone!

Did I just write a long thread about my toothache? YEP . Y’all don’t understand. I had just finished brushing my teeth, with an electric toothbrush. My mouth hurt sooo bad when I started this thread!