Tag Archives: graduation

How to Become a Doctor: Ben’s Journey in Pictures

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Ben graduated from residency! He’s now a full-fledged physician.

If you’ve been following our journey for a while, you’ve seen snippets of his path to medicine through stories of our lives at American University of the Caribbean in Sint Maarten, to Detroit, to Arizona, to California, and back to Arizona.

But I have yet to share the process from start to finish. Here’s what it takes for someone to travel from high school student to doctor.

High School in Kenya: Discovering His Calling

Surgery in Kenya

Ben’s interest in medicine started when he nearly died of spinal meningitis in Kenya during high school.

After graduating high school, Ben flew to the States with two bags and a couple hundred dollars in his pocket. He started college at Arizona Christian University.

College in Arizona: Pre-Med

Ben and his lab partner, Bizi, in pre-med classes at Arizona Christian University.

Ben worked on pre-med and began to tackle the Medical College Admissions Test. Studying for the MCAT was a lot of work.

Graduating from college was just the beginning of his path into medicine.

Gap Years: Applying for Med School

Ben taught science for two years while applying to med school (and waiting for me to graduate).

Photo credit: Eyeshot Photography

We got married in 2014.

In 2015, we traveled to Los Angeles for Ben’s interview with American University of the Caribbean.

Med School in the Caribbean: Learning How to Become a Doctor

Soon, we were on a flight to Sint Maarten for medical school.

Arrival in Sint Maarten. We were as exhausted as we look.

Ben’s white coat ceremony was the first of many reasons to celebrate during med school.

Most of students’ time in med school is spent in class or studying.

Bern studied constantly (we made that shelf out of two trash cans and a board from the dumpster).

We had fun in the Caribbean, too. Here’s Matt and Ben surfing.

We loved living on the island.

Getting into the community to volunteer and make friends was my favorite part.

Hard work paid off! Ben made the dean’s list each semester of medical school in Sint Maarten.

Lab work for a zika virus study was a great opportunity.

Med school honor and service society. Can you spot Ben?

We moved home from Sint Maarten after two years. We gained a dog.

Clinical Rotations in the States: Immersion in Hospital Work

Ben was a third-year med student in Michigan. He did one year there, nine months in Arizona, and three in California.

We spent a lot of time at home in Detroit since we were both in school and I was working from home.

The 4th year of medical school is a student’s 20th year of schooling.

For med school year four, Ben transferred to a hospital in Arizona so we could be near family.

Ben became a daddy during fourth year of medical school.

Residency interviews took Ben all over the country. I went with him to this one in Palm Springs.

Match Day during the last clinical rotation in Bakersfield, CA! Ben matched at his #1 choice of residency. We got to move home to Phoenix.

We went to Florida for med school graduation.

Quite the crowd of family members attended Ben’s med school graduation. He had a huge cheering section!

Residency in Phoenix: First Three Years as a Doctor

Here’s the official Dr. Johnson in his long white coat at work. Ben spent 3 years in his internal medicine residency.

Residency is tough, and not just because of the 28-hour shifts. Working in the ICU during a pandemic was draining.

But he made it. Finally, residency graduation! Oh, happy day!

After 11 years of this journey, we’re celebrating the end of a chapter. Can’t wait to jump into the next one!

Home Sweet Home

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There’s no place like home. Especially when you know you’ll get to call it home for a while.

Kayaking the Salt River for our anniversary
  • 2014

  • 2019

Ben and I celebrated our fifth anniversary a week ago! We realized that we’ve experienced a lot in our half-decade of marriage. Most notably, we survived Ben’s med school journey. I also survived my master’s program. We moved twelve times, living in two countries and three states. We had a baby. I can’t even remember how many jobs we’ve had.

But the transition is over!

You know, it’s fun to list all the different things we’ve done, but it sure does feel flighty at the same time. We’ve both been reading Grit by Angela Duckworth (Ben had it first and I snag it to read when he’s busy), which talks about how most people who excel in their field stick with things and pursue goals over a long period of time. It doesn’t seem like our lives have really characterized that over the past few years, but in the end, it was all to pursue this thing called an M.D. And now we’re on to the next stage.

Flying home after Ben’s graduation! We were on TV at the San Antonio airport.

When it’s all said and done, it was fun to try a bunch of different things, but I’m glad we’ll be sticking with a routine for a while. We were gritty enough to get through med school, and I think we can be gritty enough to be OK with the daily grind, too.

Little Man will appreciate that, too, I think. We were finally able to get him a crib. At eight and half months old, he’s finally out of the pack-and-play and can depend on sleeping in the same place for more than a few weeks at a time.

Relaxing at home

We also bought a couch. That doesn’t sound too exciting, but to me, it was an indication that we’re staying here for a while and not getting furniture with moving in mind. We’ve never bought a couch before. My parents gave us our first one, and we’ve just had futons and things that came with furnished apartments since then. It was fun to pick one out- and the people who sold it to us at their garage sale invited us over for dinner, too! A couch and new friends in the neighborhood. Doesn’t get better than that.

Living room

We’re actually planting things, too. To be honest, the best I’ve done so far is put some pots in the backyard and grow some chives in the kitchen, but it’s a start. Quite literally, we are “putting down roots.”

It’s good to be home.