As the final stretch to Thanksgiving comes to a close, I must share something that has been on my mind for quite some time. I try to live my life in gratitude daily, and recently I have been feeling very thankful for the good fortune my life has received due to recent events.
2021, it’s been a lot. For everyone. The year of juggling and desperately trying to get our lives back to “normal.” If you’re anything like me, you’ve been doing whatever you can to keep the sanity alive. I am a human that loves to be solo, but I never noticed how much I needed people in my life until I experienced Covid-19. No matter what kind of person you are, I think we all need the slightest bit of reassurance from time to time that good people still exist in the world. The beauty is, there is always someone out there who proves that theory to be true.
In the beginning of it all, hope was a clutch that seemed to deteriorate quickly. Having hope felt like gripping the end of a rope on the edge of a deadly cliff, watching it slowly slip through your hands. The thing is, though, we can’t release our grip on hope. There has to be something, or someone on the other end to save us from falling. I happened to cross paths with just that someone recently. I met her this year, and she was the hand I never expected to be holding on the other side.
You know that song, “Kings & Queens” by Ava Max? That’s what runs through my head when I try to describe this woman. Power, confidence — a full blown radiation of badass flows through the air when she walks into a room. I become a magnet to people like that. I want to know what makes them glow so I can steal even a sliver of their magic for my own.
Dr. Nina Izhaky, she’s got the magic. After the year I’ve spent knowing her I’m still trying to find the secret recipe for badass she concocted, that's for sure. In the first five minutes of meeting this long-legged Russian Goddess, I thought to myself, “Wow. I’ve got to get under her wing. No exceptions.” When my journey with Dr. Nina began, I won’t lie, I was thoroughly intimidated. I wanted to do everything right, I needed to be perfect for this person. At first it felt like I was living in a scene of Devil Wears Prada, I was her Andrea and She was my Miranda Priestly. But let’s be very clear, Miranda is the EVIL twin. In the beginning, every time I ran an errand for her it felt like I was in a movie, and everyone in the outside world was out to get me, making sure I would come back with the wrong coffee or bought the wrong flowers. But hey, it wouldn’t be a movie without the plot twist, am I right?
I have doctors in my family, so I have experience in knowing what their lives are like and the effort it took to become who they are. But this doctor in particular has a story that sticks out a little higher than others. The walls of Tribeca Dental Studio have been up since 2008. Let’s start with that. If you know anything about Tribeca, the first word that should come to mind is EXPENSIVE! Expensive to live and especially to own properties and businesses. It’s a lucrative and smart location to have a business, because who doesn’t want to have a slice of one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the country? Nina has owned this slice of the pie for most of her years practicing dentistry, so that’s the first reason I qualify her for her well deserved crown. Now let’s start piecing this crown together with the jewels she has unquestionably earned, shall we?
"I have never met a more impressive person. Period."
A few fun facts: Dr. Nina is a bilingual, Russian immigrant to the US. She’s a single mom, and she owns one of the ONLY practices in New York City that is a state-of-the-art, multi-disciplinary family dental office with every single doctor that anyone could ever need. Pediatric dentist? She’s got ‘em. Need implants? Done. Want to have options for a hygienist? Take your pick honey. Need a full mouth reconstruction? Just say when. Want to align your smile without traditional braces? The opportunities are endless. My first thought is, “How on EARTH does this woman juggle everything life throws at her while being a single immigrant mom and master the art of business with the effortless look that she wears every day?” If you’re asking me, I still don't have the answer for you, sorry ‘bout it. The only answer I do have is that I have never met a more impressive person. Period.
On a personal level, she’s got a heart of gold. I’m an empath one thousand percent. Empaths have that magical ability to read other’s emotions and feel them as their own. While she stumps me from time to time (which is really frustrating), more often than not, I can see what is going on in her brain. I’m always fascinated to watch her wheels turn. Whenever she tells me, “Haylee, I couldn’t sleep last night. (Insert current dilemma) kept me awake, I need you to help me find a solution.” That's all she needs to say for me to figure out how I need to break my back to help this woman feel comfortable enough to sleep at night. If I were in her shoes, no matter how much patience I have in my body, I would lose my marbles from time to time. She possesses a strength I am still learning to obtain. Not only does she care for her kids, patients and her staff with grace, but she’s a natural born mamma bear to anyone who needs it. I’ve been down in the dumps a few times lately, and all she has to do is talk to me for even a minute to bring me back to my bubbly self. She reminds me that I am more than worthy simply by radiating her own confidence. She knows who she is, and I am here for it.
In light of that, I want to return to where I started. We all lost a lot with this pandemic, whether it be a job, loved ones, or even our ability to be social in the world. When everyone else closed their doors, she refused. She managed to keep her practice open throughout the pandemic, unwilling to keep people from getting the help they needed. Yet another crown-worthy move. Bilingual or not, caring for people is her first language.
"Don't worry. If you've lasted long enough to meet me, you're just fine." - Dr. Nina
I’ll be brutally honest, I never had the intention of working for a dental office. But, for months at the beginning of the pandemic, I was desperately hunting for a job in order to simply survive. When I had my first interview at TDS, my empath senses were tingling. Something good was in the air at this establishment. I didn’t meet Dr. Nina until I was about three weeks in. In those first few minutes with my initial interaction with her she said to me, “Don’t worry. If you’ve lasted long enough to meet me, you’re just fine.” Naturally, one would think , “Wow, that was hardcore”. But to me, that meant I made the right choice in accepting the position. I wake up every day thanking the stars above that I did make that choice. Even though it wasn’t on my dream board to work in healthcare, at the moment, I cannot imagine a scenario where I would walk away from this office. If not for the sake that I thoroughly love my job altogether, because I do. It would be that I NEVER want to imagine a world where she doesn’t exist in my life. She was the hand holding the other side of my Covid rope. And I think I can speak for many others as well. I'm not the only one at TDS who has said, "She made this place feel like home".
The people who held the foundation of society during this pandemic deserve a global level of recognition. Dr. Nina is most definitely at the top of that list for me. She deserves to be on the top of the list regardless of my opinion. Her strength kept people afloat. Her relentlessness kept people safe and healthy. Her confidence kept people calm. Most of all, her motherly love kept people warm. If she isn’t worthy of a crown, I don’t know who is. I hope in this life of mine she continues to spearhead my inspiration. The lessons I have learned from this divine human have opened my eyes to a strength I forgot I had. When I grow up, I hope to become someone as powerful and badass. My wish for 2022 is that everyone has someone like her to hold the rope. At the end of the day, it’s a beautiful life we live because good people are out there to remind us of that.
A quote I live by, "Blessed be she who is both furious and magnificent."
With Love and Health,
Haylee Grosvenor