Our story started in Dallas, Texas.
On Bumble, to be exact.
Yeah, you tried to impress me with your history as a figure skater without knowing that I had been a very competitive figure skater at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.
Whatever, it got me the date. I thought you were a really cute doctor with a great smile. I was working as a new PA at a community clinic at the time, and I just wanted a casual drink… little did I know, you’d be professing your love after our first date!
That is a complete exaggeration! I merely said I was going to delete my dating apps to show how serious and excited I was after our first date. And I did! Actually, later that week I called one of my best friends and told him if I didn’t marry you, I would be settling for whoever I did marry.
That’s so sweet. It didn’t take me long to fall head over heels for you – punny jokes and freestyle rapping included.
Well, we quickly became a team and you were there from that moment on. From seeing me get through intern year to us getting engaged in my second year of residency and getting married in my third year. We’ve been a team through the entire interview trail for fellowships, deciding where we want to live and grow our family…
It’s been a ride. I will say, even as a PA working in the healthcare system, I really didn’t have a concept of how long a road physician training can be and the level of sacrifice that I was signing up for. I mean, you planned a special date just to reveal how much medical school debt you had taken on and give me an “out” pretty early in our relationship.
Well, that amount of debt is staggering even to this day and it’s something that we’ve considered a lot, especially given my salary as a pediatric subspecialist.
Yes, but we’d do it all over again. I’m really proud of the way you give all of your heart to what you do – in the hospital with patients, educating medical students and now with your platform. You’ve really made your career your own.
Yeah, I definitely haven’t settled for the norm. A year into being a pediatric gastroenterologist, I transitioned my job to GI hospitalist with all call and no clinic. It works so much better for my career goals and for our family. But that was really your idea. These big career shifts have happened with your encouragement and prompting.
It’s because we are so intertwined as a team. I think about your work probably as much as you do! And this is where faith comes in as a central part of our relationship. I pray for you often. We pray together. This is what keeps us aligned.
Yeah, praying together has been what brings us back to the middle when we feel we’ve drifted too far from center – professionally, in our marriage, as parents. You have really taught me about the beauty of praying without ceasing and the peace that comes with that.
Prayer is at the top of the list, but what are some other things that have helped us walk this long and sometimes hard road?
Well, we’ve been helped along the way by people who are a few steps ahead of us. Finding mentors and just community in general has been incredibly important.
I completely agree. Saying “yes” to more social events than usual for us was important early on when we moved every three years in training. It allowed us to find “our people” pretty quickly.
Also hosting badass birthday parties helps grow your social circle. That’s kind of our specialty: over the top birthday parties.
We love creating together! I create big events and you create skits that are sometimes funny.
My favorite joke to tell medical people is that my wife has paroxysmal rotary nystagmus. My best jokes always seem to trigger her episodes.
Okay okay, back to the point. The last thing I’ll say about getting through training and even our ongoing life in medicine is that it has helped us to stay light on our feet and be willing to adjust when something is not working. We try to prioritize regular “Team Tran” chats where we reflect – preferably in a cozy vibey place – about how things are going and where we want to be. It’s dreaming and also goal setting together.
Yeah, doing that pretty consistently since we were engaged has been very helpful to stay on the same page no matter how busy life gets.
Yep. So all of that to say, it’s been a long road of ups and downs but we have a beautiful life and I wouldn’t trade anything!
If I had to think of a catchy soundbite: “medicine, marriage and munchkins can all live happily ever after”.
cue the paroxysmal rotary nystagmus…