Perfect Cadence: Sam's Residency Graduation: the Eye Ball

So, it's been over a year since this happened so I'll try to remember the details. Sam graduated from his ophthalmology residency program over a year ago in June 2021! We got a babysitter and brought our little Noah with us to enjoy the Eye Ball. It was a nice celebration (although I have to admit the Eye Ball last year was tough to beat). It was held at a Mexican restaurant, where we ate our dinner while the "graduation" portion was played on a projector. They didn't hold a residency graduation at BAMC, but decided to provide a virtual portion for our Eye Ball. It was so hard to hear, honestly so it was the perfect time to ignore it and socialize while we ate.

Cute cute decor.

The time has come for us!

Food. Yum.

The next portion was the videos. Sam really takes pride in his video editing skills and made a hilarious staff roast where they jested at the doctors they worked with. Since it was like pulling teeth getting everyone to join in, he just did some voice overs on already made movie clips and whatnot. And enter this masterpiece:

No one said the next portion better than Sam, so I copied it from his journal. I'm sure he doesn't mind!

"In years past, I was always annoyed that the EyeBall seemed to be about a single resident who got all the awards. This year, I was sure that resident was going to be Bryant Giles, who is a stud and amazing at everything he does! Not only was he the best co-chief resident to work with this past year, he also did more cataract surgeries in his residency than any other resident in the history of the program (he did more than 100 more than me!). He is an entrepreneur with his own website, and he has created several medical devices and has patents on several others. Plus, he is a member of the church and one of the best people I have ever met!

Well, turns out I was wrong. Bryant didn’t steal the show at our EyeBall – I did! I ended up getting several of the awards given out, including:

• The Michael Lambert MD 2021 Outstanding Ophthalmology Resident Award: In Recognition for Excellence in Leadership and Clinical Sciences (elected by the staff at BAMC and WHASC)

• Resident Excellence in Teaching (elected by the residents in my program)

• Legault Davies Award: Top OKAP Score (for receiving the highest score in our program on the national in-service exam, the Ophthalmology Knowledge Assessment Program, in 2021)

• Commander’s Award: Housestaff Scientific Research, First Place in Resident Surgical Research (awarded by BAMC/WHASC Housestaff Council for the best surgical senior research manuscript submitted by graduating residents within SAUSHEC)

• The Air Force Commendation Medal for Outstanding Achievement (an official medal for my uniform given by my military commander)

I mean. I knew Sam is amazing, but it's so amazing to see that everyone sees what I see. I'm one lucky girl. Sam felt really bad taking them all, but I don't think there was any communication between everybody and everybody thought of Sam.

Overall it was a nice Eyeball. Not pictured but all the moms in the room got an award. 6-8 moms either had babies or were pregnant, and as Dr. Davies said, it was the most fertile resident group he's worked with. SO. MANY. KIDS. It was so nice to have a group that had very similar experiences to ours. It was sad to see this part of our lives come to a close...but also a relief. Congrats Sam!