Graduation Day

Today, JB graduates from Medical School!

Those of you who know John and I personally know that we have a very interesting dynamic to our relationship. We pick on each other all the time, bantering back and forth. We say exactly what we are thinking and do not beat around the bush. We have often tried to change this aspect of our relationship but to no avail. It is who we are.

This dynamic is a strong part of who we are as a couple, but I think it is also stops me, sometimes, from bragging on John. I am so busy being sarcastic that I often don't say how proud I am of what he is doing today.

I met John when I was 9. I started dating him when I was 16. I married him when I was 21. Next month we will celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary. Sometime in 1999, JB decided he didn't like that I had a higher degree. (See there is the sarcasm ... just kidding.) No, seriously, in 1999, JB decided that he wanted to go back to school to get his Bachelor Degree. A year later he had firmed up the decision to go to medical school. He ended up graduating as the TOP student in the Ogden College of Science at Western Kentucky University with a perfect 4.0 GPA. (He would not want this on the blog, but oh well, it's my blog.) He studied for nearly a year to take the MCAT (medical school entrance exam) and while he didn't do as well as he would have liked, scored very well. He majored in Biology and minored in English writing. He was the president and vice president of two of the medical organizations on campus.

John applied to approximately 10 schools in the U.S. He gave me a book on medical schools and asked me to take a look at the 10 he had picked. One of those schools was the WFMC (world famous Mayo Clinic). Mayo's statistics included a 1% acceptance rate. It was the smallest school in the country with approximately 40 students in each class. I often retell this story joking that I never thought JB would actually get in when I told him he could apply, but quite honestly, I tell that story for effect. I think I knew he had as good a chance as anyone.

We prayed that John would not get offered interviews at any out-of-state school that wasn't going to end up being the school he would go to. The interviews were expensive to fly to and stay a whole weekend. He got interviews at both the state schools (U of Kentucky and U of Louisville), and not surprisingly, was accepted at both. He temporarily put UK at the top while he waited to hear from the other schools.

About a month before my cousin Jason's wedding to Kathleen in 2002, JB received confirmation that he had moved through the first step of Mayo's process. He had been granted a phone interview. About a week before Jason and Kathleen's wedding he received another call. They wanted him to come to the campus for an interview. John actually flew from their wedding in New York City to the interview. I remember my Uncle Bob and other family members praying with JB before he left for the airport.

I didn't go with him to Mayo, mostly because of money and also because, we had already decided, that Mayo was his "dream" school. It was the school that he threw in the pool just to see what happened. If he got in, there was no question whether or not we would go. Of course we would go. That being the case, my opinion of Rochester wouldn't matter. In the end, it's good my opinion didn't matter and that I didn't go with that weekend. It was -1 degree the weekend JB interviewed.

While we waited to hear back from Mayo, the University of Miami called John and asked him to campus for an interview. I didn't like this idea. It went against our prayers that he would only be asked to visit one out-of-state school. But having not heard back from Mayo, John went ahead and scheduled the interview for a Friday.

The day before he was to leave for Miami, JB picked me up from work at Franklin-Simpson High School. I climbed into the car, and he asked me if I wanted to go with him to a nice dinner on Friday evening.

"We can't go out for dinner tomorrow night," I laughed. "You are leaving for the University of Miami."

John shook his head and told me he didn't need to go on his UM visit. He had gotten into Mayo!!!
As scared as I was to move to Rochester, that was one of the happiest moments in my life. I was so proud of John. I think I immediately jumped out of the car to tell anyone I could find in the building.

During this time, JB was also commissioned into the Air Force, the most difficult branch to be a physician as it requires an application process instead of "automatic acceptances." This was a business decision as they would pay for medical school.

We moved to Rochester with the Ray family (our stalkers!) in 2003. We rented a house that had a mother-in-law apartment on it. The Rays lived in the house, and we lived in the apartment. In 2004, we bought our first home, a condo downtown.

Now it is 2007. I don't want to get all nostalgic or anything, but John has finished medical school. What seemed an insurmountable obstacle, is now completed. Today, he is given his M.D. and is also promoted to Captain in the US Air Force. I am so very proud of John and so very blessed to be his wife. This has been a rough 4 years with a lot going on in our family, but our marriage is stronger today than when we moved here in 2003. I am married to the best husband in the world. He is intelligent, well-spoken, funny*, loving, kind, gracious, and just all around, my best friend.

I LOVE YOU JOHN! YOU ROCK!

*Team Nigeria voted that JB grew considerably more funny in Africa. This humor has continued now that he is back in the states. He also does a great job running the "John-ocracy" as we so appropriately called it in Africa.