The last hoorah!

We did it!

Graduations 2017

For all the graduates this year - CONGRATULATIONS! This time of year is one for recognition and celebration of years of hard work and passage into the next chapter of life; one that is full of new challenges and exciting new adventures. This June, I closed two chapters and am about to open a new one in Duluth, MN this fall. I graduated from not one, but two programs that I have spent the past decade or more trying to achieve.

The first, my Masters of Public Health - Global Health program, was something that I have wanted to do for over 10 years and always told myself I would do during my cardiology fellowship. When I put my mind towards something, I do it. This quality, let's call perseverance, can drive some people nuts but it is a quality that has helped enable me get to where I am today. What I didn't realize when I was 24 and had the brilliant plan to do this as a cardiology fellow, was that completing a Masters program with a toddler and being pregnant with a second child (due days after my last final in my first quarter) was not ideal. There is no good time to have kids as a professional female but lucky for me the timing was perfect - I was able to take my biostats final on a Monday (39 weeks pregnant) and then on Friday, I picked up my parents at the airport and drove to the hospital and had a C-section and a beautiful little girl! Viola! Easy as pie!

MPH graduation - do I look happy?!

Three weeks later, I returned to my Masters program for Winter quarter. Turns out there isn't a "maternity leave" while you are a student. Bummer! No one told me that. I dropped a class or two that quarter that I had to make up but I persevered and after three years, I finally completed the degree! The MPH is a very prestigious program at the University of Washington and I was part of the 10th graduating class in the Global Health program, a new part of the School of Public Health but lead by "giants" in the field of infectious disease. I worked with global health experts from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation on the Global Burden of Disease Study and had classes with students from all over the world with diverse backgrounds and interests, from social sciences to environmental health. I learned more from my classmates than I did in any textbook! I am so proud to finally have finished this degree and have these letters behind my name, Catherine P. Benziger, MD, MPH.

My fan section at my UW cardiology graduation!

My second graduation this month was my cardiology fellowship graduation from the University of Washington Medical Center. This has been a dream of mine since I was a summer intern at the Minneapolis Heart Institute as a sophomore at Macalester in 2004. Finally, after 13 years, including five years of medical school and a whirlwind six years in Seattle completing internal medicine residency and then cardiology fellowship, I did it! When Seth and I embarked on this adventure in Seattle shortly after getting married in 2011, it seemed like this day would never come but here we are - we did it! In the mean time, a lot has happened: I turned 30, had two kids, bought our first house, became an aunt, and signed my first job contract! I couldn't have done it without my amazing husband, Seth, who has done all the thankless tasks at home and taking care of the kids while he worked full time and I worked 60-80 hours every week, as well as countless nights and weekends. This last year has been especially hard, not only for myself and Seth, but also for the kids as they are getting older and miss me more when I am gone. They hate it when I get called back into work when I am on call and can't play with or read books to them. I cannot express how excited I am to be done with fellowship!! I will be taking a few weeks off, moving to a smaller town (Duluth, MN), living close to work (hopefully), and spending more time with my family (both immediate and extended) and old friends.

The UW cardiology graduates - Patrick Goleski, Rick Rossow, Jill Steiner, Mariko Harper, Tiffany Chen, Me, James Lee

All the general cardiology and subspecialty graduates (4 women)

Happy as clams at high tide!

When we moved to this beautiful city six years ago, I was so happy to be biking to work every day surrounded by mountains and water. Seth and I played 11v11 soccer outdoors year round, went for hikes in old growth forests, and my Raynaud's disease (poor circulation to fingers and toes) went away completely! What more could I ask for! I was happy as a clam! I would have said you were crazy if you said I would ever return to the frozen tundra with the infamous state bird - mosquitoes! However, "Sometimes your heart needs more time to accept what your mind already knows." I think I knew once I had Theo that being far from family was not going to work long term. The training program in Seattle was excellent for what I was interested in and I am so thankful for all the training I have received here. I will forever admire my clinical mentors and all the wonderful nurses and staff that I have worked with at Harborview, UWMC and the VA. This program has taught me more than I could have ever imagined I would ever learn. "You don't know how much you don't know" they say and I I know I still have so much more to learn! While I find myself with tears in my eyes writing this, sad to be leaving this beautiful place and the wonderful people, I am happy to be returning "home" and be closer to family and friends.

My beautiful family at my graduation

My daily bike commute from Green Lake to the University District is about 5 miles and takes between 20-30 minutes depending on traffic, rain, and stop lights. It is a great time to decompress from the busy day and get a bit of much needed exercise. Last week when I was biking home from work, I broke out in a song. I couldn't remember all the lyrics but I learned it from my dad long ago and it went something like this:

Country roads, take me home

To the place I belong

[Minnesota], mountain momma

Take me home, country roads

I hear her voice

In the mornin' hour she calls me

The radio reminds me of my home far away

And drivin' down the road I get a feelin'

That I should have been home yesterday, yesterday

Take me home, now country roads

-John Denver,

"Take me home, country roads"