Dr. Christopher Lee Camp

John & I traveled to Rochester this past week for Chris' graduation ceremony. He is done with medical school and finally gets that coveted M.D. behind his name. Now it's just 5-7 more years in orthopedic surgery! He is staying a Mayo for his residency in ortho & will most likely do a fellowship following.

Being a part of this big weekend was really special. John and Chris joined Van (C's brother-in-law) and Luke (C's Rochester friend) for a "Man Trip" to the boundary waters. They drove about 7 hrs. north to camp, fish & kayak for the next several days. Apparently the boys had a blast with no calls from their wives since they didn't have cell service, no stress from work/school and no lights from the city...just the wilderness & the stars. I will admit after a long and drawn out argument on whether or not John needed to buy bear spray, he did not see one bear. I paid $54 for a small can of mace that came home still in the package. I really had no choice but to buy it after our knock-down-drag-out, but the pure joy on john's face when the cashier told me the total was priceless. I had no idea it was that freakin' expensive when I demanded we buy it...so my internal struggle became money or pride....I saved my pride. The irony of the whole deal is there was a bear sighting not once, but twice while I was in Rochester! I didn't see it, but it made it on the news both nights after attacking locals bird feeders for the seed. I may have been wrong on the bear spray, but my motherly instincts were appreciated after sneaking in allergy medicine, toilet paper and sunscreen into John's bag before he left. He caught the poison ivy scrub before we headed out and gave me a big eye roll when he removed it from his bag. :)

I stayed with Erica the first part of the week & was able to help her prepare the house for 10 guests coming in that weekend! Her house is in a perfect neighborhood and has all the charm of an older home! I absolutely love it! Thursday night we went to an oath swearing ceremony for the Christian physician. It wasn't sponsored by Mayo (did I really even need to say that), but by a local church. Several Christan mayo physicians lead the ceremony, spoke directly and personally to each of the participants & pray over them in the end. It was a pretty awesome thing to watch.





Saturday was the big day. Erica's younger brother Jonathan rode with us to and from the ceremony. This kid cracks me up like no other. Sometimes we would have Chris & Erica call him on speaker phone when we were hanging out just so I could hear him talk & get his prospective on life. My favorite part of the car ride was when I asked him if his hair was naturally that straight. His response, "no...I use shampoo." hahahaha He then went into the type of shampoo he uses vs. the type his brother uses. We literally talked about everything under the sun. He shares my passion for animals so I tried to persuade him to be a vet, but it falls in line after his first choice of being a pro football player or a "mayo medical student."

Chris was chosen by his classmates as their class leader each year of med school so naturally when it came time for them to choose a speaker to represent them at graduation, it was him. He did a fantastic job! I may be a bit biases, but I assure you that any person there would agree he was the best speaker of the day! I never doubted he would do an excellent job, but even at that he exceeded my expectations. I can't imagine how proud his family was b/c we were bursting with pride for our friend. I had to threaten John not to embarrass me when Chris walked across the stage with a redneck whistle or cheer. We respectfully clapped & took pictures. His graduation was combined with the Mayo masters & Pd.D. program of biomedical sciences. After reading some of the thesis John leaned over to me and said, "if you ever feel too confident in yourself just come to one of these ceremonies and you'll feel like you haven't accomplished anything!" I had to agree after not even being able to correctly pronounce this one guys thesis. Feel smart? try it! "Development of an in vivo, DNA Methyltransferase Isoformspecific, and Gene-specific Assay for Studying Methylation-mediated Epigenetic Regulation." Riiiiiiiiight....

giving his speech

getting his hood!

Camp family!

Van enjoys the reception food

Erica, Seth, Chris, Jonathan, Van & Jessica

So glad we could be here this day!

Chris with his parents

and sister

Erica's family with Christopher

Afterward we enjoyed some BBQ & fellowship at the Camp residence. Erica put together a book of letters from close friends & family members for his graduation gift. It turned out great! He also got some power tools & necessities for around the house work from his dad & father-in-law. I think the boys got so excited about all of the manly objects around them it inspired some impromptu landscape work!

We really had a blast this week & weekend. I'm so glad we were able to be there and got to spend some quality time with the Camps. Congratulations, Chris!!!!!!!!!!