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.

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? 

Mars

Stephanie Aron, M2, Class of 2024

Inspired by the book series Red Rising by Pierce Brown.

Botanical Study

Angela Li, M3, Class of 2023

If the constantly changing schedule of a third-year medical student has taught me anything, it has challenged me to branch out from my comfort zone and pushed me to seek out a different creative medium than what I am used to. While I am very familiar and comfortable with inkwork, having completed projects both casually and for my undergraduate art courses, it has been more than a decade since I’ve picked up watercolors. 

Plaza Art Fair at Sunset

Sricharan Yadali, M1, Class of 2025

Last year I unearthed my parents’ old Pentax point-and-shoot that they purchased in the mid 1990s. Upon asking them about the camera, my parents told me about fond memories that they had using it to capture their first few years in a new and foreign land. To all of our surprises, it still worked! I quickly purchased some film and took the camera with me on family trips. When I got scans of my pictures back, I was astounded. 

Fading Memories

Cierra Kahrs, M1, Class of 2025

I created this piece in fall 2020, during my last semester as an undergraduate student. I wanted to tie my interests of geriatrics and dementia with my passion for ceramics. 

Karam Hamada, Class of 2024

 

The KU School of Medicine Class of 2024 started medical school virtually due to COVID-19 pandemic. They were the only class for whom the white coat ceremony was held virtually. Most students got to know each other through the class GroupMe chat, and other than that, there were not too many chances to get to know people outside of small groups. One way through which students connected with each other was student interest groups led by several students in the class. One of these groups is the KUMC Student Community Providers, which organizes student volunteers to help with actionable ongoing needs in Wyandotte County. The group is currently managed by several students in Class of 2024, but it was initiated through the efforts of Sophia Leonard and Karam Hamada. This is a conversation between Karam Hamada, a second-year medical student at KUMC, and Kimia Memar, one of our Med Intima Narrative editors from the same class. 

• How do you describe yourself?

I consider myself to be different if that makes sense. I have a fascination with not fitting in, and I have an issue with doing the same thing repetitively for long periods of time. So that’s why I always need to be doing different kinds of experiences all the time and meet different people.

• From personal experience, I know not fitting in the mainstream is not easy. However, I see how you are embracing that and letting it liberate you.

I think part of it could be that I bounced around many different schools growing up. I went to 8 different schools, and every one of them was so different with regards to its identify, with students ranging from very low to very high socioeconomic statuses. Having to switch and adapt my identify to each of them was really taxing on me. So in college, I decided to be myself because I would never be able to fully fit in. I want to help my family and everyone around me, but I also want to uplift them to feel comfortable in doing what they want to do. I’m really big into service and that is not just community service: it is giving back and inspiring others to give back.

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

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.

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).