Words of Wisdom to the Class of 2020 from Your Alumni Community

The optometry class of 2020 will be the best ever for two reasons: 1.It’s 2020. Enough said. 2.Charles Darwin said so (“It is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself.”)Telehealth isn’t new. Wearing PPE around patients isn’t new. Selling contact lenses on-line isn’t new. Yet, optometry historically has had DNA that caused practitioners to use any of the above, or for that matter, make any changes at glacial speed. Changes in optometry happen so slowly that outside forces that adapt and change faster than us continue to nibble away at our profession. The class of 2020 will stop that erosion and come out stronger because of it. In a matter of months, the COVID-19 pandemic forever changed the rules of practice and business and forced OD’s to reexamine how we examine. The fundamental way we practice clinically and commercially will be forever changed. Some aspects will undoubtedly revert back to pre-pandemic ways but many of the changes thrust upon us are positive changes and the class of 2020 is uniquely positioned & more than any group of doctors in our history & to rapidly and effectively assimilate those positive changes. Here’s to the class of 2020 and the great changes that lay ahead! Gary Gerber, 1982