Where I Won't Be This Week...Otherwise Known as AAA

If you're not obsessed with ears, here are some important translations before reading the post below:
NAFDA = National Association of Future Doctors of Audiology (or the most bad ass group of friends ever)
AAA = American Academy of Audiology (the big player in the audiology membership world)
ASHA = American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (the other big player that lacks severely; both accredit and certify schools/audiologists)
CCC = Certification of Clinical Competancies (a bogus certification that many employers continue to require despite it's meaningless affirmation of my skills)

For you audiology nerds out there, I really didn't miss convention all that much the last two years. I was too busy getting ready to move my life halfway across the country in 2009...not to mention convention was where I was moving to in a few short weeks. 2010 brought the chance to go to San Diego to party it up with Phonak, Oticon and more importantly my grad school and NAFDA peeps. Unfortunately membership dues are a pretty penny, friends, and I only make slightly attractive pennies at this point. They were even less attractive last spring. So I thought about convention this year, only to realize that I probably needed my CCCs for job purposes, despite the complete lack of benefits or advocacy that ASHA provides for us ear-loving folks. I didn't have a cool grand to throw around to different organizations so hard choices had to be made. As a result I won't be heading to Chicago this week.

And I feel like an ear lovin' slacker. I miss the sessions and learning and thinking critically about what's new and how it can be applied to better serve patients. I miss ambushing the most intelligent minds in the field outside the restroom and finding out that simply because I went to a certain university I am given a couple extra seconds to make a connection. I miss being able to say that I am taught and know and bask in the gloriousness that are some of those same minds in the classrooms I sat in week in and week out. I'm not gonna lie, I miss the free stuff and the free food and the kick butt parties too, but they were never my focus...ok, maybe the first year when the manufacturer's row opened up and there was a plethora of reps trying to woo you to their company. Until they realized you were a lowly student who had no authority to choose which hearing aids to buy. Then backs were turned, as a general rule. Which frankly never made any sense to me since I was going to be the one buying hearing aids in a few short years.  Why didn't the companies invest in the future? They collectively seemed to think if we were given free crap that we would be mollified. Are doctoral students that gullible in general?  Anyway, I digress.

So, for you who will be fortunate enough to sit in hotel chairs and learn from the best minds available this week, to sit with old friends and reminisce and laugh until you can breath, to walk through the convention hall and be wooed by all our reps (some much lovelier and less greasy than others) please know I'd do VNGs for a year to be there with you.