Himalayan Adventure

Katelyn Schumacher, M4, Class of 2022

I had the amazing opportunity to travel to Nepal in 2019 to take on the Everest Base Camp Trek. This entailed about a week of trekking and staying at teahouses along the way. The first photo was taken about halfway through the trek near Thukla Pass, which is where all memorials for those who lost their lives attempting the famous summit were located. Each one was made of stone and typically decorated with prayer flags. The second photo was taken of Mt. Everest. Seeing the mountain felt surreal and made the thin air worth it. At 5,364 meters elevation, the air was thin and landscape completely covered in snow and ice. Glacier water ran next to the base through the crevasses. The moment we made it gave me a sense of accomplishment, humility, and clarity.

Mars

Stephanie Aron, M2, Class of 2024

Inspired by the book series Red Rising by Pierce Brown.

Chasing Waterfalls

Vy Le, M2, Class of 2024

I picked up gouache painting during my first semester of medical school. Some time during second semester, things got busy, and I stopped painting as much. By the end of the year, I realized that I just didn’t feel happy or did as well because I wasn’t taking the time for myself to relax and paint. So I decided to take some time over the summer to paint. In the time that it took for me to paint each of these pieces, I didn’t have to think about anything but color mixing and creating a scene into which I can escape. Waterfalls have always interested me, and in finding references for and creating this series, it was almost as if I was transported to each of these locations. I hope that anyone looking at these paintings can not only see them but also hear the falls and imagine that they’re in these peaceful places surrounded by nature. Hopefully I’ll be able to chase all of these waterfalls in person one day.

Windows

Trent Edwards, M1, Class of 2025

You’ve heard it said that no man is an island, but during COVID’s prolonged quarantine, it was difficult not to identify with that floating, isolated unit of life. As minutes turned into weeks, I found myself starving for the very sense of connection which Maslow postulated was a human need. When quarantine ended, I stumbled out into the world with a cautious desperation to rekindle relationships. I participated in conversations with vigor and listened intently. Yet, despite my enthusiasm, I still felt… distant. Sure, there was physically 6 feet of distance, but I found myself confronting another barrier. How could I connect with someone while half their face was covered? 

Golden Rainbows

Tuqa Asedi, M1, Class of 2025

The best part about running my little Etsy shop is taking pictures of the jewelry pieces and getting creative with it.

We still aren’t free

Kakra Boye-Doe, M4, Class of 2022

To this day, the promises of Juneteenth have yet to be actualize. In 2021, over 150 years after the Emancipation proclamation and two years after, when all salves heard of their “freedom”, we still are not free.

Earlier this week, President Biden signed into law a bill that recognized Juneteenth as a National holiday. Juneteenth is the commeration of the day when federal troops took control of the state of Texas to ensure the freedom of slaves, June 19th, 1865, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. The Emancipation Proclamation, itself, was a performative gesture. It only freed slaves under Confederate control.

Quilling

Edith Sigler, M1, Class of 2025

Quilling is a form of paper art that traditionally uses only paper strips and glue.  I learned about it when I was very young at a festival in Ohio, but I never thought of it as something I could do.  Several years ago, I was given a quilling kit for Christmas.  It wasn’t until a very long Christmas break due to the pandemic last year that I started to learn how to do quilling.  I loved it, and after learning some basic designs from a book, I started to try to make 3D objects based on pictures or real objects.  The first thing I made without a pattern was a miniature mountain dulcimer for my grandma’s birthday.  As a musician, I was careful to try to get the correct relative spacing of the frets.  Now I love to make various quilling projects when I have time and give them to friends and family, especially those who I didn’t see much in the last year.

Good Morning Mom

Tiffany Killblane, M3, Class of 2023

Lokus Corgus Maximus (that was his full AKC name) or Loki for short was my first dog that I got as an adult–I literally picked his floofy corgi butt up on my way from graduating with my bachelors degree and leaving Colorado to start my masters degree in Kansas. He was 7 weeks old when we headed to Wichita together. He was my best friend and rock through my twenties: bad decisions and bad relationships, moving into apartments with nothing but a bedroom set, me learning how to become a college instructor, him learning how to become a service dog and even fathering a few sets of puppies (which terrified him in much the same way having human babies for the first time terrify human adults).

Shouldn’t Be

Simon Longhi, M1, Class of 2025

Wow, they really did it. Literally zero toilet paper.

Trudging into Publix Super Market on a beautiful, yet too-early morning in late March of 2020, I unrolled and tied my wrinkled black apron behind me as I looked over to the bathroom accessories aisle across Register Six. Barren. Edges and crannies of the aisle shelves I had never even seen before, now completely exposed. The coronavirus pandemic had just begun to settle upon a panicking Orlando, and it seemed that folks were convinced that this thing akin to a Walking Dead zombie apocalypse would confine them to their homes for weeks or months at a time (I guess?), so stocking up on toiletries was a scrambling priority. Brilliant.

la mer

Vinamratha Rao, M2, Class of 2028

as the sun glints 

off beads of brine 

braided in my hair

I watch from my boundless home, 

a prison at times like this,

as my love leans

past the shore