An MD in all but name

The man you see before you has completed the entire curriculum for earning a medical degree at Case Western Reserve University.
Though he won't be officially conferred his degree until May 17th, today he completes his very last day of his very last rotation as a medical student. What next? Nothing. Until June 10 when he reports to Fort Bliss for orientation to begin his transitional year.

Being done early like this is fantastic, but it also is a little anticlimactic. A lifetime of planning and goal setting, 4 years of hard work... and then... nothing to do! No big graduaton party--yet. Just regular old boring life-minus any outside responsibilities. To help make things feel a little extra special, we gave Mike his graduation present early. Now he has a brand new ipod to mess around with and load his 120 GB of music on to. Even that doesn't seem to be enough to mark the momentousness of the occasion, so hopefully this blog entry will do a little more to boost our celebratory atmosphere.

So Mike; here's to you! We all know how much you have wanted this, and how hard you have worked. You have been dedicated and persevered. You will be a fantastic physician because you really care about doing a good job and really learning and understanding everything there is in medicine. I could never be a doctor because I am far too lazy and am only interested in doing the minimum required to qualify for something... but you worked hard every day not because you wanted an honors grade (well, not only), but because you knew you'd need to know this stuff and you were petrified at what might happen to somebody else if you didn't. I am dead serious when I say that if I ever had a major surgery where life saving anesthesia were required, I would want you to be my gas-man. And that honestly has nothing to do with the fact that you are my husband! I know the kind of talent and ability you possess, and you will go very far in your field. So here's to the beginning of an exciting career with many exciting and wonderful things ahead!