Chapter One

My mental life has become more painful than a root canal. I am an expert on pain. My profession is dentistry. Looking back over my life, I was more advantaged than most. My father was a successful lawyer and my mother was a podiatrist. I attended a private elementary school. The high school I attended had a higher tuition rate than many colleges. There were only ten students to a class. When it came time to go to college, I was prepared. I applied and was accepted into an Ivy League institution. I was on my way. Or at least, I thought I was. The day I entered college the course of my life was set.

My father accompanied me to the campus and helped me unload my things into the dorm room. Due to my excellent secondary education grades, I was put into what was called the “Honors Program”. My dorm building was coed; it housed some of the brightest and affluent students in the country. They had been prepped for their futures. They were determined to achieve their goals. Sometime during my junior year in high school, and after a lot of coaching from my parents, my selection was dentistry. I knew that it was going to be a long road to travel, but I was going to put it in high gear.

Now, like most young men my age, I thought about sex a lot. I was still a virgin, but I was determined to do something about it. The young women I knew in high school were very conscientious of their moral standing. The last thing they wanted was to be labeled was “floozy”. I was prepared to have sex with one of these nymphs and practice discretion. I was not out to ruin anyone’s reputation. But after several attempts, I could not find any interested parties. I was determined to take up this challenge in college.

After everything was unloaded into my dorm room, my father gave me some last minute father son advice. He encouraged me not to get distracted from my studies.

“Your mother and I are sending you here to get a good education. Remember, it is not intended to be vacation,” he said. He told me that looking back on his own college experience, there was a lot of bumps in the road.

“The most important thing is when you hit a bump and you will, don’t break your springs,” he reminded me. He shook my hand and left. I was now on my own. I was going to be the master of my own fate.

I had in hand my curriculum for the first semester. Classes were not scheduled to begin for two days. That was going to give me some time to get oriented to the campus. A list of the courses that had been previously sent to me had a building and room numbers listed. My goal for the rest of the afternoon was to locate those buildings and rooms. I did not want to leave that task for the day I was scheduled to begin classes. I was also curious to learn the location of the dining hall. I had a prepaid meal ticket for three meals a day.

As I left my dorm room, I began walking down the hall; the door to the room next to mine was open. I noticed a young woman unpacking her suitcase. I stopped and introduced myself as her neighbor. Her name was Greta. She was an average looking young woman in appearance. She was very friendly. She seemed to have an extensive vocabulary. Of course, she was intelligent, I thought. One must be in the upper percentile in intellect to get into this university. After a brief conversation and an exchange of pleasantries, I conti