2022 PHM Health Professions Creative Medical Writing and Art Contest
May 10, 2022- 00:00My name is Cindy McNamara.
- 00:02I am the interim director for the
- 00:05Program for Humanities and Medicine,
- 00:07standing in for the great Doctor,
- 00:09Anna Reisman, who is the usual director
- 00:12of the Program for Humanities in Medicine
- 00:15and is actually here with us this evening.
- 00:18Welcome to the 2022 Program
- 00:21for Humanities and Medicine,
- 00:23Health Professions, Student creative
- 00:25writing and visual arts contest.
- 00:28We are thrilled to have you here,
- 00:31and we are so proud.
- 00:33Of all of our presenters
- 00:34and winners this evening,
- 00:36this year we welcome submissions from
- 00:39all health profession students at Yale.
- 00:42We had students from health
- 00:44training programs,
- 00:44including the Yale Position
- 00:47associate program,
- 00:48the Yale Physician Assistant online program,
- 00:52the Yale School of Medicine,
- 00:54the Yale School of Public Health,
- 00:56the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences MD,
- 01:00PhD program,
- 01:00and the Yale School of Nursing.
- 01:03To include students in both the nursing
- 01:06and nurse practitioner programs.
- 01:07Prizes to winning students from
- 01:09the Yale School of Medicine came
- 01:11from the Marguerite Rush Lerner
- 01:12fund and prizes to winning students
- 01:14from other health professions.
- 01:16Schools were funded by the program
- 01:18for the Humanities in Medicine.
- 01:20This year categories represented
- 01:22in the contest included poetry,
- 01:24prose, and visual arts.
- 01:28We received 131 wonderful submissions,
- 01:31including 49 in the poetry category,
- 01:3521 in the pros category and 60
- 01:37in the visual arts category.
- 01:39There were so many beautiful outstanding
- 01:43pieces which made this year's
- 01:46contest particularly competitive.
- 01:48Tonight we're joined by our
- 01:50friend Karen Kolb,
- 01:52who really runs the program
- 01:53for Humanities in medicine,
- 01:55and I want to extend a thank you
- 01:58to Karen for all she's done.
- 02:01We're also joined by ASL interpreters,
- 02:05both Cheryl and Jai,
- 02:06and we thank them for all that
- 02:09they're doing for the program tonight.
- 02:12We're also joined by Sam,
- 02:13our technician who's helping us with.
- 02:15If we have any trouble.
- 02:19And our with our programming.
- 02:21So thank you for that.
- 02:23And now I'm going to share my
- 02:25screen to show you to thank you
- 02:27to to thank our judges.
- 02:39Our wonderful judges, which,
- 02:40with whom we would never have
- 02:42been able to have this contest,
- 02:44are seen on this slide and we thank
- 02:46them because they reviewed and re
- 02:49reviewed each piece to come up
- 02:51with our list of winning students.
- 02:56Which is here. This is our list
- 02:58of winning students for the 2022
- 02:59Program for Humanities and Medicine,
- 03:01Health Professions, Creative
- 03:02Medical writing and art contests,
- 03:04and we're very proud of all of you.
- 03:09Tonight we're going to follow a program
- 03:12that's listed here our each of our
- 03:15winners will speak or show their piece.
- 03:18And it will include about 20 pieces.
- 03:23The last three people aren't here,
- 03:25but I will be announcing their pieces.
- 03:27So without further ado I will begin.
- 03:32I'm going to announce our first.
- 03:34Presenter Anna Vignola is a Yale
- 03:37physician assistant online program
- 03:39student to graduate this year.
- 03:42In fact, I believe it's tomorrow
- 03:45she won first place in the poetry
- 03:48category with her poem as the Sun
- 03:52sets behind our fig tree. Anna.
- 03:58First of all, I just want
- 03:59to say what an honor it
- 04:01is to be part of this entire contest
- 04:03and this community of writers.
- 04:05So I just want to thank everyone who
- 04:07contributed in putting this together.
- 04:10It's it's, you know,
- 04:11my last time probably being able
- 04:13to do this as I graduate tomorrow.
- 04:15So thank you so much.
- 04:17It's been a pleasure to be
- 04:19part of this community.
- 04:20So my poem was written at a time when I
- 04:24was doing rotation with a geriatrician,
- 04:26and so we were seeing a lot of elderly
- 04:29patients coming in and many of whom
- 04:30were coming in with their spouses,
- 04:33who they had been with for 5060 years.
- 04:38And when I was observing them,
- 04:40it reminded me how much we express,
- 04:44whether consciously or not,
- 04:45through our behaviors,
- 04:46and actually what a small
- 04:48percentage of our emotions are
- 04:50expressed through actual words.
- 04:52And so this poem is kind of born
- 04:56out of that kind of moment of
- 04:58clarity that I had one evening
- 05:00when I was thinking about that.
- 05:04As the sun sets behind our fig tree.
- 05:08I am thankful for the two
- 05:10little bodies asleep beside me.
- 05:12And for the one on the couch to
- 05:14whom in a moment I will bring the
- 05:17last fig of the season to apologize
- 05:19for using up the hot water.
- 05:21And for sometimes leaving open the
- 05:23kitchen window so he'll think of
- 05:25me as he shuffles through sleep.
- 05:34Thank you.
- 05:38Thank you, Anna.
- 05:40That was absolutely beautiful.
- 05:42Perfect thank you.
- 05:45Our next presenter is Christina Ruiz.
- 05:49Christina is a Yale physician
- 05:51assistant online program
- 05:52student to graduate in 2023,
- 05:54Christina won third place
- 05:55in the tie in the poetry
- 05:58category of the contest with
- 06:00her poem entitled My Choice.
- 06:03Christina welcome.
- 06:06Hi, thank you for having me.
- 06:09This poem was written
- 06:11from personal experience.
- 06:14It's important to share this poem
- 06:17during these times as our reproductive
- 06:20rights are being challenged.
- 06:22It just so happened that this
- 06:26symposium was scheduled for this week,
- 06:29so I decided to take a break
- 06:32from rotations to share.
- 06:34My hope is to break the stigma
- 06:35of abortions by sharing a little
- 06:37bit of my story through a poem.
- 06:41My choice today.
- 06:42I wasn't a student, I was the patient,
- 06:46a patient with a choice.
- 06:48Handed a clipboard and told to
- 06:51wait lecture time is approaching
- 06:53and I might be late.
- 06:56A life continues to form inside me.
- 06:58Please call me.
- 06:59I hope it's not too late.
- 07:01My anxiousness becomes impatience.
- 07:03My stomach begins to ache.
- 07:06Will I regret this decision soon?
- 07:09A feeling I just can't shake.
- 07:12My training keeps me grounded.
- 07:14My hope for the future keeps me sane.
- 07:16Will I be able to have more children later?
- 07:20Someone please just Call My Name?
- 07:23Handed pills that I should know.
- 07:26I contemplate which way this all could go.
- 07:29My medical training tells me this is safe.
- 07:32I now sit with a decision I must make.
- 07:35Tears run down my face why
- 07:38must I choose my own fate?
- 07:40Proceed with a pregnancy filled with
- 07:42stress or terminate a pregnancy,
- 07:45a choice I might regret.
- 07:47As I leave the office in tears,
- 07:49I returned to life as a student
- 07:51who will graduate in a few years.
- 07:54I sit in my car reflecting on my body,
- 07:57my choice,
- 07:59feeling gratitude because I
- 08:00was able to utilize my voice.
- 08:03Today I wasn't a student,
- 08:05I was the patient,
- 08:07a patient with
- 08:08a choice. Thank you.
- 08:15Wow, that was really wonderful.
- 08:17Thank you so much for sharing that with us.
- 08:22Really appreciate that.
- 08:25Our next presenter is Isaiah Thomas.
- 08:28Isaiah is in the Yale School of
- 08:31Medicine to graduate in 2023.
- 08:34His entry was tied for first place
- 08:36in the prose category of the contest,
- 08:39and it's entitled the end of days.
- 08:41Thank you, Isaiah.
- 08:44Thank you. Hi, I'm Isaiah Thomas,
- 08:464th year medical student.
- 08:47I'm really honored and grateful for
- 08:49this opportunity to share my work.
- 08:50This piece was based on a patient I
- 08:52worked with on the adolescent psych
- 08:54unit during my third year and this
- 08:56experience has just been really
- 08:57important to me in terms of my interest
- 08:59in child analysis and psychiatry and
- 09:01just sort of how I approach mental
- 09:04health and medicine as a whole,
- 09:06and so I'll be reading an excerpt
- 09:08from my piece at the end of days.
- 09:10On her first day on the unit,
- 09:12she told us that her throat
- 09:13had closed up a few years ago.
- 09:14She couldn't eat for a month.
- 09:16Things could just happen to you.
- 09:18You couldn't trust anything,
- 09:19not even your own body.
- 09:21On this admission,
- 09:22her first time in a psychiatric unit,
- 09:24her grades were the lowest
- 09:25they had ever been.
- 09:26She didn't see the point in trying anymore.
- 09:28She didn't trust the school system anyways,
- 09:30or the government or society.
- 09:32Everyone just went about their
- 09:34lives never doing anything while the
- 09:36world burned around us as she spoke,
- 09:38I wrote down paranoia on my notepad.
- 09:40I paused and added a question mark after it.
- 09:44She was 15 years old with recent
- 09:46diagnosis of major depression
- 09:47and generalized anxiety disorder.
- 09:49Things have gotten bad in the
- 09:51past few months.
- 09:52Among other things,
- 09:53she worried about the environment about
- 09:54climate change and disasters of her own,
- 09:56making the idea that this could
- 09:58all be gone within her lifetime.
- 10:00She didn't know how to cope.
- 10:02She had been in therapy and
- 10:03started an antidepressant,
- 10:04but after a week she became activated.
- 10:07Everything became too real,
- 10:08too much reality to bear.
- 10:10That was why she came to the hospital.
- 10:12She feared she would walk in front
- 10:13of a car or fall down the stairs.
- 10:15It might just happen of its own accord.
- 10:17You are a hat on the first day and
- 10:19every day after that she told us that
- 10:21she started wearing it one day when
- 10:23she became depressed and just never stopped.
- 10:24Her speech was pressured and yet
- 10:27directed like someone in an emergency,
- 10:29but her tone carried us out.
- 10:30Anger, like someone already grieving.
- 10:34She said that she had always been a warrior.
- 10:36She used to worry about her health.
- 10:37Now she worried about existing.
- 10:39She worried that she was a narcissist,
- 10:41that she was making this up,
- 10:42but we're just on a rock in an infinitely
- 10:44expanding and uncaring universe.
- 10:46She said it would be easier and
- 10:47so much less painful to give in
- 10:49to be subsumed by the nothingness.
- 10:51The idea of nihilism came up that
- 10:53nothing inherently had meaning.
- 10:55I worried that discussing nihilism
- 10:56would make her a nihilist.
- 10:58But when I was trained to answer
- 10:59calls at a suicide hotline,
- 11:01we were taught that talking about
- 11:03suicide doesn't make people suicidal.
- 11:04But that was ten years ago.
- 11:06Maybe this was different,
- 11:07but I figured nihilism was on the table.
- 11:10She had already told me about the
- 11:12four noble truths of Buddhism,
- 11:13about the suffering inherent to existence,
- 11:15and the impermanence of all things.
- 11:17She said she wasn't religious,
- 11:19but she believed in an energy
- 11:20that connects all living things.
- 11:22She felt connected to the earth.
- 11:24The woods were one of her few happy places.
- 11:26Somewhere her mind could be quiet.
- 11:29She worried that she was too far gone over
- 11:32the precipice past the point of no return.
- 11:34Not worth the trouble anymore.
- 11:36I insisted that she was worth the trouble.
- 11:38She winced.
- 11:38She had no reason to believe me or care
- 11:41about what I had to say on the matter.
- 11:43I should have listened,
- 11:45not challenged at the hotline.
- 11:46They've told us that you're
- 11:47not there to give answers.
- 11:48You're there to assess risk,
- 11:50ask open-ended questions and
- 11:51validate their emotions.
- 11:53You don't know the things will get better,
- 11:54but you try to help a caller move
- 11:56towards the possibility that they might.
- 11:58I didn't know if I was supposed
- 11:59to give answers.
- 12:00Now as a provider and training,
- 12:02I later asked her about her
- 12:03plans for the future.
- 12:04She didn't have any at the moment.
- 12:06Maybe wander into the woods
- 12:07and live out her days.
- 12:09She knew that she didn't want
- 12:10to go to college.
- 12:11She wanted to learn about astrology and
- 12:13cosmology and the nature of existence.
- 12:15I asked her if she'd ever considered
- 12:17studying those things in college.
- 12:18She was quiet.
- 12:19She hadn't.
- 12:20No one had ever told her that
- 12:22that was an option.
- 12:24One day we told her we wanted to try
- 12:25a medication that we hoped would
- 12:27slow down her runaway thoughts.
- 12:29Choose willing to try it.
- 12:30We asked her if she had any questions.
- 12:32She asked us what to do about
- 12:34the crushing weight of existence.
- 12:35I turned to my supervising Dr.
- 12:37We both shrugged. You learn to manage it.
- 12:40Medication can help when it becomes too
- 12:42much and you learn to share the way.
- 12:44We asked if she had any other questions.
- 12:47She asked for information and information
- 12:49sheet about the medication and asked
- 12:50to not be told what its side effects were.
- 12:52She feared she would take them.
- 12:55On the first day after starting
- 12:56the medication, she said that she
- 12:58had no thoughts in her head.
- 12:59Her mind was empty.
- 13:00We suggested that maybe she was used
- 13:02to the roar of her racing thoughts.
- 13:04This new quiet maybe felt
- 13:06like the absence of thoughts.
- 13:08She said that it was possible.
- 13:09We decided to wait and see how tomorrow went.
- 13:12On the second day,
- 13:13she told us that her mind was calm and
- 13:15she had total clarity about what she must do.
- 13:17She had to die.
- 13:19It was the only logical answer.
- 13:21She said that she was nothing
- 13:22more than a carbon footprint.
- 13:23She could be a vegan,
- 13:24but she could never be vegan enough.
- 13:26She couldn't save the world,
- 13:27but she could certainly harm it.
- 13:29She didn't need to exist.
- 13:30She didn't want to exist.
- 13:32When I was at the hotline, we didn't
- 13:34get many explicitly existential callers.
- 13:36They didn't train us on.
- 13:37They didn't train us on how to
- 13:39navigate a conversation about
- 13:41humanities inevitable self-destruction.
- 13:43How could you live with herself
- 13:44knowing it was all pointless?
- 13:46I didn't have a good answer for her.
- 13:48I didn't have one for myself.
- 13:50So I was honest,
- 13:51I said we do our best and hope for
- 13:53the best that it's worth it to try,
- 13:55even if it means saving just one person,
- 13:58even if that person is yourself.
- 13:59That's how I looked with myself.
- 14:01She seemed doubtful.
- 14:02We decided to wait and see how tomorrow went.
- 14:05On the third day she woke up
- 14:07and no longer needed to die.
- 14:09She said that she had a revelation and
- 14:12decided she didn't want to keep existing
- 14:14like this halfway between life and death.
- 14:16She still felt bad.
- 14:17She was still depressed,
- 14:18but she wanted to live.
- 14:20She wasn't wearing her hat that day.
- 14:22She said this was her making
- 14:24steps towards getting better.
- 14:25There was work to be done.
- 14:27She wanted to open an animal shelter.
- 14:29Someday she would start by
- 14:30volunteering at the shelter in
- 14:32her town and she wanted to start
- 14:34a garden to help things grow.
- 14:36Thank you.
- 14:41Thank you Isaiah. That was awesome.
- 14:45It's amazing that the power of narrative
- 14:48medicine coming through again and
- 14:49again that was great. Thank you.
- 14:51Our next presenter is Simone Haselow.
- 14:54Simone is as Yale School of Medicine
- 14:57students to graduate in 2023.
- 14:59She won first place in the visual
- 15:03arts category of the contest with
- 15:06her piece entitled Collapse,
- 15:09Simon. Thank
- 15:11you, I'm gonna go ahead and share my screen
- 15:13now if I can.
- 15:19OK, can you all see that? OK,
- 15:24I guess just first a little bit about
- 15:26this work. As you can see, it's a comic,
- 15:28so I'm going to be reading it to you all.
- 15:32And this is a comic that is based also
- 15:36on my own experiences as a patient
- 15:38and my own experiences with anxiety
- 15:40and panic disorder
- 15:42in particular. OK,
- 15:44so this is collapse.
- 15:48When I was in my first year
- 15:49of architectural studies,
- 15:51I was one of
- 15:5310,486 students across the US working
- 15:55towards a master's degree in architecture.
- 15:59There are about 800 students at my school.
- 16:02All of us ambitious and none of us sleeping.
- 16:05When you go to bed last night
- 16:07I didn't. I was in studio until three and
- 16:09still had 100 pages of reading left. I
- 16:12got 4 hours last night.
- 16:13Best I've done all week. All
- 16:16of us wanted to be visionaries to build
- 16:19buildings that were iconic paradigm shifting.
- 16:21Most of us would never concern ourselves
- 16:23with anything beyond molding dimensions,
- 16:25and the placement of bathroom fixtures.
- 16:29When I had a spare moment,
- 16:30I found myself not getting some much
- 16:32needed sleep, but binge watching
- 16:33YouTube videos late into the night.
- 16:36But it was worse when I didn't sleep.
- 16:41My fascination became fixation,
- 16:43then fear, seeping into my everyday life.
- 16:46I was terrified of stairs.
- 16:48I couldn't work, couldn't sleep.
- 16:51So let me get this straight.
- 16:53You couldn't finish your project
- 16:54because you were afraid that the
- 16:55building was going to collapse.
- 16:58I know, I know, it's stupid,
- 17:00but I can't stop thinking about it.
- 17:02Look, you're a smart girl.
- 17:04You've done good work here so far.
- 17:06I don't need to tell you why
- 17:07this is completely illogical.
- 17:09Where did this all come from?
- 17:12I don't know. I do you know
- 17:14that story about the library that collapsed
- 17:16because the architects forgot to account
- 17:17for the weight of the books? It's just.
- 17:21How can anyone be
- 17:21sure they've accounted for everything?
- 17:24That's an urban legend. And for the
- 17:26record, it says that the library
- 17:28is sinking, not collapsing.
- 17:30Well, maybe you can design A strip malls.
- 17:36My first real panic attack happened
- 17:37during the year's first snowfall.
- 17:42Did the architects account
- 17:42for the weight of the snow?
- 17:55Thank you.
- 18:11Thank you so much Simone.
- 18:13That was wonderful.
- 18:16Appreciate that.
- 18:18Next we have Adriana Tersoff.
- 18:22From the school Graduate School
- 18:23of Arts and Sciences, MD,
- 18:25PhD program with first place tied
- 18:27for first place in the pros category
- 18:30with with her entry the judge.
- 18:33Thank you, Adriana.
- 18:35Thank you very much.
- 18:37So my story was actually from when I
- 18:39was on the wards, about four years ago.
- 18:43I just started my internal medicine
- 18:46rotation and this patient and his
- 18:50story really stuck out to me.
- 18:52And so I wrote this about him.
- 18:56It's called the judge.
- 18:58Two years ago a colleague showed me
- 19:00a picture she had taken after the
- 19:02judges last day in the hospital,
- 19:04an empty wheelchair with judge
- 19:06plastered on the back.
- 19:07The image was poetic.
- 19:09He needed no qualifiers.
- 19:10He was simply the judge.
- 19:12A legend on the oncology ward.
- 19:14He passed away.
- 19:15Not long after that picture
- 19:16was taken despite his tenacity
- 19:18to overcome his illness.
- 19:20Still,
- 19:20the image was proof that he had
- 19:22won his other battle to retain
- 19:24his identity and dignity even
- 19:26as he became a patient.
- 19:27I remember the first day I met him,
- 19:29a deluge of activity sparked about me.
- 19:32The judge was coming and
- 19:33he was not happy about it.
- 19:35I gleaned that he was well known on the ward.
- 19:38Everyone was discussing the very
- 19:40particular arrangements for his stay,
- 19:41his audacity to request a special room,
- 19:44how he insisted on being called judge.
- 19:47Sure,
- 19:47he was an accomplished professional,
- 19:49but his fastidiousness and what appear
- 19:51to be presumption graded many why was
- 19:54he more important than other patients?
- 19:56After all, shouldn't the hospital?
- 19:57Of all places,
- 19:58be a level playing field.
- 20:00Everyone got sick and everyone was
- 20:02entitled to the same standard of care.
- 20:04The anxiety rubbed off on me too.
- 20:06I began regretting that extra slice of
- 20:08pizza during lunch as my insides fluttered.
- 20:11How could he possibly react to a
- 20:13newly minted and barely competent
- 20:15medical student could never even done
- 20:16a full physical exam on the wards,
- 20:18when apparently he antagonized
- 20:21even the attending?
- 20:22I put on my short white coat and
- 20:24settled up for the battle to come
- 20:26notebook in one hand and stethoscope
- 20:27and the other I saw his name printed
- 20:30in Big Block letters on the sign
- 20:32next to his room with a slanted
- 20:34Hon clearly handwritten next to it.
- 20:37I felt my heart racing as I
- 20:39reached out to knock.
- 20:40I expected a stern man with an
- 20:42imposing frame humorless face.
- 20:44Maybe a thick set jaw with jowls instead.
- 20:47I was met with a slight figure on the couch.
- 20:50Pale is China and apparently
- 20:52just as delicate.
- 20:53The snapshot of his frailty, though,
- 20:55was short lived the instant I walked in.
- 20:57He sat up and held himself rigidly
- 21:00suppressing any signs of the effort.
- 21:01It must have cost to get up.
- 21:03His mustache quivered as he coughed,
- 21:05but then he addressed me,
- 21:06his voice firm and steady.
- 21:08Please introduce yourself.
- 21:10As I stated, my name and purpose,
- 21:12his wife, a wispy and elegant woman,
- 21:15started pushing a chair towards me,
- 21:17trying to be polite and
- 21:18save her from the effort.
- 21:19I said that it really wasn't necessary.
- 21:21I could speak standing up.
- 21:23It's not for you,
- 21:24she said matter of factly without
- 21:26even a glance at me.
- 21:27She continued pushing the
- 21:29chair completely unfazed.
- 21:31I quickly turned around thinking
- 21:32I might have missed someone.
- 21:33In my initial survey of the room,
- 21:35there was no one else confused,
- 21:38and now even more and mortified,
- 21:39I looked back at her.
- 21:40Regretting my life choices,
- 21:42my embarrassment must have shown since
- 21:44at that moment the judge spoke behind me.
- 21:47Don't worry,
- 21:47it is to make you comfortable,
- 21:49but also to help us feel more at ease here.
- 21:52Sit down. Let me explain.
- 21:54The judge began to explain every
- 21:56morning in the hospital he would be
- 21:58visited by a group of white coats.
- 22:00He hated it.
- 22:01Seven or eight of them
- 22:02would hover over his bed,
- 22:04watch him talk about him and make notes
- 22:06as if he were specimen for study.
- 22:08It made him feel small, insignificant.
- 22:10And worst of all, helpless.
- 22:13This team was also always in flux,
- 22:15as medical students joined and
- 22:17shifts ended so that it was
- 22:18impossible for him to keep track of
- 22:20who was there and what they knew.
- 22:22There just appeared to be a
- 22:24massive professionals discussing
- 22:25him in the third person already,
- 22:27his disease had rendered him vulnerable,
- 22:29but the hospital environment
- 22:30worked in tandem to chip away at
- 22:32his sense of agency and identity.
- 22:34Why could it not be a conversation?
- 22:36Why could we not communicate
- 22:37with each other as people rather
- 22:39than only as doctor and patient?
- 22:41The chair was part of his attempt to
- 22:43tear down these dehumanizing walls
- 22:45and help us see each other face to face.
- 22:48I considered his words.
- 22:49The hospital may be a level playing field,
- 22:52but it accomplished this in some
- 22:54sense by stripping away personhood
- 22:56and labeling everyone as patient,
- 22:58which came to mean an object of disease.
- 23:01This also ultimately dehumanized
- 23:02the medical professional whose goal
- 23:05was to dispassionately examine
- 23:06and treat this object.
- 23:08The resulting power dynamic
- 23:09created a dichotomy of us.
- 23:11And then white coat and patient labeled
- 23:14that devour the individual behind them.
- 23:16I consider the judge now in this context,
- 23:19perhaps what others had deemed
- 23:21to be pretension.
- 23:22The title, the demeanor,
- 23:23his way it was,
- 23:25his way of fighting against an
- 23:27oppressive dehumanizing environment.
- 23:29As I communicated with him,
- 23:31I realized that he did not
- 23:32necessarily wish to be treated with
- 23:34more respect than everyone else,
- 23:36but to indicate in his own way
- 23:38that he believed the respect and
- 23:40dignity given to patients was not
- 23:42adequate for him or for anyone else.
- 23:44He just had the privilege and
- 23:46confidence to be heard.
- 23:48How many others felt this way but
- 23:50were unable or afraid to voice their
- 23:53opinions to the white coats before them?
- 23:55Now, four years later, though,
- 23:57I remember learning about the judges,
- 23:58treatments, and symptoms.
- 23:59I couldn't tell you the specifics.
- 24:01What remains crystal clear to me,
- 24:03though,
- 24:03is the man sitting up tall and
- 24:05fighting for his identity and dignity.
- 24:07I have taken his lesson to heart
- 24:09changing my approach and sharing
- 24:11his experience,
- 24:12especially for those that might
- 24:13not have a voice in the hospital.
- 24:15Those who might not have an Hon that
- 24:18they can write next to their name.
- 24:20Though a change of attitude
- 24:21and practice might take time,
- 24:23the first step is exactly
- 24:24as the judge did for me,
- 24:26bringing us eye to eye with a chair.
- 24:29Thank you.
- 24:35Very good thank you.
- 24:37I was wonderful.
- 24:39Thank you very much Adriana.
- 24:41Next up we have Zeneth Indianola.
- 24:45Who is from the Yale School of
- 24:48Nursing graduating in 2024?
- 24:51Xenex's piece won honorable
- 24:52mention in the visual arts category
- 24:55and is entitled Mom and Me.
- 24:57Zaynap thank
- 24:59you so much. I'm so honored to be
- 25:01here and listening to everyone's
- 25:02work and seeing everyone's work
- 25:03has been really wonderful.
- 25:05Everyone is so talented,
- 25:07so thank you so much.
- 25:17So this piece, hopefully everyone
- 25:20can see it
- 25:21was created using acrylic paints on canvas
- 25:25and it's me and my mom together. After
- 25:29about a year after
- 25:30I was born
- 25:31and we were living in Colorado
- 25:33Springs at the time and the voting
- 25:35that the photo that this painting
- 25:37is based on was taken by my dad
- 25:40while my parents want a winter hike.
- 25:42With me, my mom and dad love hiking and
- 25:46every time they go hiking I
- 25:47was always with them like,
- 25:48no matter how little
- 25:49I was. And apparently
- 25:50I loved it
- 25:52and I wanted to capture the
- 25:55tenderness and the adventure of
- 25:57New Parenthood for my. My
- 25:59mom, who I love very much.
- 26:53Anybody would like to make
- 26:55any comments? They're welcome.
- 26:58It's beautiful paint picture.
- 27:03Thank you.
- 27:08And the tattoo says people are
- 27:10saying it's beautiful, so beautiful.
- 27:12And please keep painting. Thank you.
- 27:15Thank you so much for those nice comments.
- 27:19Wonderful really appreciate it. Great.
- 27:24Next we have Mariko Fujimoto Brooks,
- 27:28who actually has two winning pieces,
- 27:31the first of which I will tell in a minute.
- 27:34She's from the Yale School of
- 27:36Public Health to graduate this year.
- 27:38The first piece is an honorable
- 27:40mention in the poetry category
- 27:43entitled Enumerations on Love.
- 27:45The second piece is a third place
- 27:47tie in the poetry category,
- 27:50and I will let Maddie go tell you about that.
- 27:55Hi everyone, thank you so much for having
- 27:57me today and thank you so much to everyone
- 27:59who's been involved with this contest.
- 28:00It's been such a pleasure being a part
- 28:02of the cohort every year that I've
- 28:03been at the School of Public Health.
- 28:05And actually if it's OK going to switch the
- 28:07order for today because I think we should
- 28:09end on a happy poem in a world that is.
- 28:12I think sometimes struggling to find
- 28:13a little bit of lightness these days.
- 28:15So this first poem which is entitled
- 28:18on white coated flags or what victory
- 28:20surrenders is a poem about my paternal
- 28:22grandfather who was an army medic.
- 28:25During the Vietnam War,
- 28:26and I wrote this poem because I was
- 28:29very interested in the politics and
- 28:31complications of having people in the
- 28:33field whose job it is to heal during
- 28:36an inherently violent and inherently
- 28:39life destroying mission that is war,
- 28:41and so just sort of playing with
- 28:43those themes and how that
- 28:46impacts intergenerationally.
- 28:47The way in which our entire family heals,
- 28:50so I'll go ahead and read that one first.
- 28:55Sometimes when fear glazes over my father's
- 28:58eyes, I see my grandfather's white coat
- 29:01slowly staining itself into the jungle earth
- 29:04as he kneels in the shadows of liberties.
- 29:07Too hot torch 15 years he spent ripping seams
- 29:10in the lines between killing and saving.
- 29:13Sewing men back together just so they
- 29:16could split each other apart again.
- 29:184 tours he spent hypocrisy curled on
- 29:21the back of his tongue as he promised
- 29:24to do known harm, or at least.
- 29:27Let it be done.
- 29:29All bullets have memories,
- 29:31especially the ones that are left unfired.
- 29:34What do you do when those tasked with
- 29:36healing find lead pressed into the
- 29:38corners and crevices of their own minds?
- 29:40When the constant caressing of memories
- 29:43slick fingers distend a man that a
- 29:45family once called home into a new
- 29:47person entirely blank brain split
- 29:48with the weight of its own stitches.
- 29:51They have a new name for it now PTSD,
- 29:55but really it is the smell of
- 29:57cigarette smoke and the fall.
- 29:58The sound of flashing fireworks blooming
- 30:00red across the sky, it is the silence.
- 30:04That awaits.
- 30:06When no one knows what will smear
- 30:08past and present together across
- 30:10the operating table of memory.
- 30:12When survival is enough to bring him home,
- 30:14but far too much for him to stay mercy.
- 30:18Becomes the sharp scent of Kansas
- 30:20grass breaking under his feet as he
- 30:23walks out the door again, hoping.
- 30:25He can finally heal himself.
- 30:29Thank you.
- 30:34All right, the second poems for today
- 30:37is going to be a numerations on love,
- 30:41which is, quite simply,
- 30:42a love letter to my friends.
- 30:44I'm in Yale's Asian American spoken
- 30:46word group and one of our challenges
- 30:48this year was to write some happy poems,
- 30:51so hopefully this is one of them.
- 30:56I am tired of adding up
- 30:58bodies positive test days.
- 30:59We were forced to part instead.
- 31:01How do we love each other?
- 31:03Let me count the ways.
- 31:05One when we trust the earth to hold us.
- 31:08Sometimes sorrow isn't the light caress
- 31:10of my mother's hand against my cheek.
- 31:13Instead, it sits bloated like rotten Jacko
- 31:16Lanters perched on a porch in November,
- 31:18spilling out like a denim covered waistline,
- 31:22the stomach over the cut.
- 31:25When all of the unhackable things
- 31:27that we cannot help but hold leave our
- 31:29fingers chapped and our shoulders aching.
- 31:32Remember that nothing you have
- 31:33given the Earth has ever been.
- 31:35Some heavy for her, the apocalypse has come,
- 31:38but the ground has still not
- 31:39split open beneath you.
- 31:40Sometimes the earth will ask you
- 31:43quietly if she can hold your sadness.
- 31:45Sometimes it's OK to let her too.
- 31:49When we treat everything as reverence
- 31:52on a warm Friday night in November,
- 31:55here are the things that I know are holy.
- 31:57Isabel pledges allegiance
- 31:59to her grandfather's hands.
- 32:00Alicia counts dreams on the
- 32:02iridescent wings of cicadas.
- 32:03Dean tells Kaylee that home
- 32:05is wherever she makes it.
- 32:06Lillian and Alice are pressed next to
- 32:08me in the car jacket to down jacket.
- 32:10The world exhales and breath.
- 32:13Made of giant, drier warm sheets,
- 32:15and for a moment the Yellow Street
- 32:18light makes everything look like you.
- 32:203. When we give up.
- 32:23If nothing else,
- 32:24I will tell my children that whiteness
- 32:26has always been the color of surrender,
- 32:28but never the courage and leaving.
- 32:31Four,
- 32:31when the house is built for you,
- 32:34because I don't know if I'd call
- 32:36love homecoming so much as it is
- 32:38slipping off your shoes when you
- 32:39enter the door without quite knowing
- 32:41the contours of the entryway.
- 32:43When love looks at us,
- 32:44or at least when it sees us all we
- 32:47need to do is grasp the unsanded
- 32:49wooden planks and press our
- 32:51foreheads against the grain,
- 32:52which is to say against each other.
- 32:565.
- 32:56When we've decided we've
- 32:58arrived wherever we are.
- 33:00When the moonlight suspends arcs of
- 33:02ocean against your cheek until your salt
- 33:04light eyes cannot tell the difference
- 33:06between spray mingling with Starlight,
- 33:08leaving you gasping,
- 33:09breathless,
- 33:10the vast expanse in between,
- 33:12we don't need to be more than the soft
- 33:14galaxies already running through our
- 33:16veins forever might only be a sandcastle,
- 33:18but we were always the sea,
- 33:20love eroding our edges,
- 33:21carving valleys and rivers into
- 33:23stomachs and thighs like the moon
- 33:25pulls the tide through rocks to sit.
- 33:27The shoreline this is the
- 33:29home stretch and here are you
- 33:32remarkably living through it.
- 33:34Thank you everyone.
- 33:38Wow, wonderful, thank you so much and
- 33:42thank you for for your the changing.
- 33:45The order. That was perfect.
- 33:47I appreciate that. Next,
- 33:49the next presenter wasn't able to make it.
- 33:52Nicholas Riddell is a Yale position associate
- 33:55program student to graduate this year.
- 33:58Nicholas won Andrew mentioned
- 34:00in the visual arts category for
- 34:03his piece entitled Jahi McGrath.
- 34:06We congratulate him.
- 34:08Next is going to be. Taylor Evans,
- 34:12a Yale School of Nursing student.
- 34:15To graduate in 2024.
- 34:18Interested in nurse midwifery?
- 34:20Taylor once tied for second
- 34:22place in the prose category with
- 34:25her story a mother's musings.
- 34:27Thank you, Taylor.
- 34:29Thank you.
- 34:31I just wanted to echo what everyone
- 34:33has been saying which is adding
- 34:35so honored to be here and listen
- 34:37to the creative sides of my peers
- 34:40and hopefully future colleagues.
- 34:41So this piece is entitled and
- 34:44mother's musings and is really
- 34:46getting at kind of undermining
- 34:48societal expectations of what does
- 34:50it mean to be a mom and a woman?
- 34:55So let me be clear,
- 34:57this is not an apology,
- 34:59it is an explanation. I did leave,
- 35:01but I did not leave you behind.
- 35:03That is impossible.
- 35:04And though you are only half me,
- 35:07you were wholly of me.
- 35:09Songwriters often talk about how the people
- 35:11they love are inscribed on their hearts,
- 35:13but I will always carry you
- 35:15in the form of stretch marks.
- 35:17You see, there are some things
- 35:18that we can predict with clarity.
- 35:20The leathery feeling of the air
- 35:22when a summer storm rolls in.
- 35:24The rush of blood when your knee is grazed.
- 35:26I had the same kinds of premonitions
- 35:28about my own life and I knew with
- 35:30the same kind of certainty that I
- 35:32could not be the mother you deserved.
- 35:33I imagine that's difficult to understand
- 35:36because it's difficult to admit.
- 35:38Still, I won't apologize for who I am,
- 35:41just as I won't ask for your forgiveness.
- 35:43Both would be ingenuine and
- 35:45if I can ask anything of you,
- 35:46it is to be nothing other than yourself,
- 35:49fully, painfully, truthfully.
- 35:53Much to your grandmother's chagrin,
- 35:54I finished medical school even as she
- 35:56still sent me applications to MFA programs.
- 35:59Radiology, with its clear precision
- 36:01and black and white definitions,
- 36:03became a haven.
- 36:04And while the body can be scanned
- 36:06and have its most hidden parts
- 36:08exposed by some beams of radiation,
- 36:10the fissured mass that harbors our
- 36:13subconscious remains impenetrable by
- 36:15even the most sophisticated imaging.
- 36:17Sometimes the limitations of my
- 36:19insight frustrated me always seeing the
- 36:21slightest sinus and cleanest breaks,
- 36:23but never really getting to know
- 36:25the person behind the body.
- 36:26That information belonged to them alone.
- 36:30It became clear that your father
- 36:32should have been the one in Group
- 36:33chats with my friends who had become
- 36:35new parents as I started filling
- 36:37their homes with spouses and children,
- 36:39my time started filling with more
- 36:40hours spent in front of the monitor.
- 36:43Other women might have loved to
- 36:44see their partner take an interest
- 36:46in starting a family.
- 36:47Other women might have seen their husband,
- 36:49their husband eyeing the stroller
- 36:51aisle at Target,
- 36:52and rushed home to conceive something
- 36:54to populate such a contraption.
- 36:56But his fantasies were a real threat to be.
- 36:58I was excelling at work and climbing
- 37:00the ranks with every annual review.
- 37:03When his hand grazed my stomach,
- 37:04it felt like a sharp reminder that
- 37:06my uterus remained to his relief.
- 37:08To my relief, at his disappointment, vacant.
- 37:12Once I pulled away from his touch,
- 37:14this comes so naturally to most women,
- 37:16he said.
- 37:16But I'm not most women remember
- 37:19that's why you asked me to marry you.
- 37:22Months passed and eventually he
- 37:24stopped asking for children.
- 37:26I don't suggest watching the person
- 37:27you love give up something for
- 37:29you unless you can live with a
- 37:31resentment that's likely to follow.
- 37:33How could I keep denying him happiness
- 37:35when it was all he had given to me?
- 37:38Did you know that a woman sensitivity
- 37:41to potential contaminants
- 37:42intensifies in her first trimester
- 37:44to avoid ingesting anything
- 37:46dangerous to to a developing fetus?
- 37:48An evolutionary advantage,
- 37:50but seriously inconvenience to me.
- 37:52I vomited so often I began to wonder if
- 37:55this was how my body was rejecting you.
- 37:58They warn you about the swollen
- 38:00ankles and the sleepless nights,
- 38:01but they don't prepare you for how
- 38:03cushions gasp under your weight or
- 38:05how your gait falters when you walk.
- 38:07I wanted to submit myself
- 38:08to an xray more than once,
- 38:10but I already knew the cause of
- 38:12my discomfort and I would only
- 38:14see your body curled inside me.
- 38:16I really tried not to resent you
- 38:18for the ways you were eroding me.
- 38:20Your father would remind me
- 38:21that nine months was a short and
- 38:23temporary amount of time.
- 38:25But he also didn't have to deal with
- 38:27sleepless nights because you had decided
- 38:29to lodge yourself against my bladder.
- 38:31He didn't understand the horror of
- 38:33watching your body morph and sag and
- 38:35expand after having spent the majority
- 38:37of my adolescent years trying to figure
- 38:39out how to rid myself of unwanted pounds.
- 38:43Once an elderly woman approached
- 38:45me while I was sniffing the navels
- 38:47of oranges at the grocery store.
- 38:48Without worrying,
- 38:49she placed her hand on my protruding belly.
- 38:52God bless you, she said,
- 38:53as of sanctifying me.
- 38:54I smiled the way I smile at your father
- 38:57when he ****** me off in public.
- 38:59God had nothing to do with this.
- 39:02Scientists say that women have evolved
- 39:04to forget the pain of childbirth,
- 39:06not me.
- 39:07I remember every contraction,
- 39:09every urge from above,
- 39:11every searing tear from below.
- 39:13When a flood of pain washed over me,
- 39:14I chanted I can't do it.
- 39:16I can't do it like a satanic mantra.
- 39:19My mother crouched next to me.
- 39:20Don't be ridiculous.
- 39:22Women have been having babies for
- 39:24centuries and you get drugs to help you.
- 39:26She read my shoulders and before
- 39:28I could tell her to leave another
- 39:30wave dragged me under.
- 39:31Every time the doctor appeared
- 39:33between my legs,
- 39:34it seemed more in a front than the last.
- 39:36Your father's encouraging words became tons,
- 39:39and my inability to cope
- 39:41became overwhelmingly obvious.
- 39:42When the nurses brought in
- 39:43another woman to explain the pain,
- 39:45I was feeling it was productive.
- 39:47It was powerful. It was ********.
- 39:51At the end you were laid across
- 39:53my swollen breath as a lactation
- 39:55specialist hovered in the corner
- 39:56as though she could already sense
- 39:58my incompetence.
- 39:59You were two weeks old when I
- 40:00tried to go back to work,
- 40:02but the partners at the office
- 40:03refused my offer.
- 40:04I didn't know how to tell them that
- 40:06their dismissal felt like a sentencing.
- 40:08I was tired of having put my
- 40:10career on pause to spawn a human.
- 40:12It's been happening for thousands
- 40:13of years and yet the novelty of
- 40:16babies still hasn't worn off.
- 40:18And I tried tirelessly to appease you.
- 40:20I did,
- 40:20but I could never decide for your
- 40:22gurgles and bacon expressions,
- 40:24and every sniffle made me feel
- 40:26more inadequate than the last.
- 40:28I've been reading enough articles in
- 40:30the American Journal Psychiatry to
- 40:32know the postpartum depression was
- 40:34becoming increasingly legitimized.
- 40:35Still, I wondered if what I was
- 40:37feeling could be attributed to a
- 40:39neurotransmitter imbalance or just the
- 40:41knowledge that it was unfit for this job.
- 40:43Our family doesn't get depression.
- 40:45My mother would say as she
- 40:46bounced you in her arms.
- 40:47I tried not to think about
- 40:49how natural she loved,
- 40:50how it easy you appeared cradled to her.
- 40:53What do you think your patients
- 40:54will say if they find out
- 40:56you've gone to the nut house?
- 40:57Just find a mommy and baby group and
- 40:59drink some wine like the rest of us did.
- 41:03As you grew out of your toddler
- 41:04years and into your preteens,
- 41:06you started to look like me and it
- 41:08broke my heart because I didn't know
- 41:09how to keep the fat from your thighs or
- 41:12they or erase the frizz from your hair.
- 41:14When you scraped your knee playing
- 41:16tag with the neighborhood kids,
- 41:17I didn't know how to comfort you because
- 41:19I knew nothing was actually broken.
- 41:21But you are still inconsolable.
- 41:23I've set the bones of three year olds
- 41:25of broken arms who didn't bail us out,
- 41:27who didn't wail, as out as you did that day.
- 41:29But your father pulled you into him,
- 41:31called the injury Boo Boo,
- 41:33and gave it a loving kiss before
- 41:35getting you a scoop of ice cream.
- 41:37You ran straight to him, instinctually,
- 41:38knowing that he would be able to comfort you.
- 41:42I wonder then, as I often do now,
- 41:44if you had known at birth when
- 41:45you were placed over my heart,
- 41:47that you were never going to get
- 41:49the nutrients you needed from me.
- 41:51The rest of the story you know
- 41:52when you were 13 you woke up to a
- 41:54note saying that I had gone and I
- 41:56didn't know when I would return,
- 41:57but that I loved you.
- 41:59What you don't know is that you
- 42:01became a phantom limb in my life.
- 42:03I know the years that have
- 42:05passed are unbridgeable.
- 42:06I did not write to try to mend
- 42:07what I know cannot be mended.
- 42:09I know what I've done has left
- 42:11breaks and fractures that will
- 42:13never appear on any X ray.
- 42:14I know this.
- 42:16Still, what I wanted for myself,
- 42:18I want for you.
- 42:20To stay true to yourself,
- 42:21you're ambitions and your aspirations.
- 42:24But I would caution you against clinging
- 42:26to them so unrelentingly that you
- 42:28lose a part of yourself that you love.
- 42:30For me, that part has always been you.
- 42:34Thank you.
- 42:45Wow, Taylor. That was wonderful.
- 42:49Thank you, thank you for
- 42:51sharing that beautiful story.
- 42:54That was. Thanks to everyone and then a chat.
- 42:58There's a lot of people saying wonderful
- 43:01things about our amazing presenters
- 43:03and how eloquent and just beautiful
- 43:07these stories and and pieces are.
- 43:10So thank you, thank you for sharing that.
- 43:14Next we have Alex Appley,
- 43:17a Yale physician associate
- 43:18program student to graduate,
- 43:20probably tomorrow this year,
- 43:22who won honorable mention in the visual
- 43:26arts category because he's drowning.
- 43:30Alex hi, how's it going?
- 43:33Everyone has been great so far.
- 43:37I'd like to share my piece I wrote I.
- 43:41Drew this in didactic year.
- 43:46Because all about?
- 43:49Although the book learning.
- 43:51And as you can see,
- 43:54it's the see it's made up of.
- 43:58All of the medical terms,
- 43:59and there's someone drowning in the middle,
- 44:02and I guess that was me at the time,
- 44:04but.
- 44:06I can say now that I've
- 44:08safely swam to shore
- 44:10and now I just look out
- 44:11occasionally at the ocean.
- 44:15Make sure I still retain it all. And
- 44:18very fittingly, I
- 44:20drew this in notability, which is a
- 44:25app for note taking.
- 44:51All right?
- 44:57Wow, thank you Alex, that is amazing.
- 45:01That's something else I know a
- 45:03lot of people use notability,
- 45:04that's wonderful work and I I
- 45:07love the metaphor. The chat is.
- 45:10Popping what a great visual metaphor.
- 45:12Congrats Alex. I remember your piece well.
- 45:14Love it. Thanks Alex. Nice work Alex.
- 45:17Congratulate and someone
- 45:18said we can all relate.
- 45:20I'm sure all of us can relate.
- 45:22People are saying so.
- 45:23Thank you for for extending that
- 45:26bit of humanism to the rest of us.
- 45:29I appreciate that.
- 45:30I think we all do thank you.
- 45:34Perfect perfect Next up
- 45:36we have Olivia Belliveau,
- 45:39a Yale School of Medicine
- 45:41student to graduate in 2025.
- 45:43Olivia has a third place tie in the poetry.
- 45:47Category of the contest with
- 45:49the piece entitled Naked In
- 45:52Front of William Hunter.
- 45:54Thanks Olivia.
- 46:00Hi everyone, my name is Olivia.
- 46:02I'm very grateful to be here with
- 46:04you all so I wrote this piece in
- 46:07response to a 2019 exhibit at
- 46:10the Yale Center for British Art,
- 46:12which was called William Hunter and
- 46:13the anatomy of the modern museum.
- 46:15Sorry, there's a siren in the background.
- 46:19William Hunter was an 18th century anatomist,
- 46:22obstetrician, professor and collector
- 46:24who was famous for creating models
- 46:27of the pregnant body in part through
- 46:29cadaveric dissections of 13 women.
- 46:31So the images that will be displayed
- 46:33here as they read are photographs
- 46:35that I took of the exhibit.
- 46:36So just a disclaimer that some of these
- 46:39images are artistic or anatomical
- 46:40renderings of human dissection.
- 46:42So if that might be a bit too much,
- 46:43please feel free to minimize
- 46:45your your zoom screen.
- 46:48All right, so it's called naked
- 46:50in front of William Hunter. 1.
- 46:55Methods. Names have been excised,
- 46:59replaced with colors damned with wax.
- 47:02The rivers under skin have been dried.
- 47:06This will be recorded.
- 47:092. Atlas. The heart at
- 47:14the center of the Earth.
- 47:15It too is drying somewhere.
- 47:18Gravid uterus heavy with something.
- 47:22Heavier and cross section.
- 47:25Heavier still in ink.
- 47:293. Study of a child in utero.
- 47:335 variants on infant.
- 47:36Swaddled and body eyes closed.
- 47:39In utero means waiting
- 47:42forever to understand light.
- 47:44Womb is meant to be transient home.
- 47:46Here permanent room and canvas.
- 47:50That once was woman,
- 47:51now a book of naps.
- 47:554. Pedagogy. In death, the farmer's
- 48:00daughter did not know this about harvest.
- 48:03Did not know shovels excavating full moon.
- 48:07Did not know her body once laid to rest.
- 48:10Could surface without her.
- 48:12Brought further from life than death.
- 48:15He knew imperialism.
- 48:17Required mediation sometimes.
- 48:20Her body was found
- 48:22unresting under the school.
- 48:23Doubled up in a heap entirely
- 48:26covered with the grave clothes.
- 48:28The townspeople revolted.
- 48:30Death to the students. He was hunting.
- 48:34Phone treasure under Bone moon.
- 48:385. 7th subject.
- 48:42He breaks the body and stages of
- 48:45dissection to know where contours rest.
- 48:48The artists need to see and he will
- 48:51show them by pretending sculpture.
- 48:53Illuminating same fruit slices of leg,
- 48:56same folds of Stoney fingers.
- 48:59He calls the body subject
- 49:02meaning object of study.
- 49:05Subject was buried at nameless.
- 49:07Subject did not know.
- 49:09Rest was not rest.
- 49:11Subject Knew to call herself only she.
- 49:15Only I. Subject did not know life ended
- 49:20and life inside her ended and still.
- 49:23The shape of life of the both of them.
- 49:27Would persist nested cold in modern life.
- 49:326. Wandering wound theory.
- 49:36The Greeks described the
- 49:38relationship of womb to women.
- 49:40An animal within an animal.
- 49:42Purported it could rise
- 49:44and clang for attention.
- 49:45Mayhem under muscle.
- 49:48Hunter breaks the rock and finds it a geode.
- 49:51Not going anywhere.
- 49:53Pen and Ink suggest a flower within a flower.
- 49:58Desiccating that's all,
- 50:00thank you.
- 50:06Wonderful. Thank you Olivia.
- 50:10That was very clever.
- 50:14Very nice. Perfect thank you.
- 50:17Next we have Erica Chang Singh,
- 50:20a Yale School of Medicine student,
- 50:22to graduate in 2024.
- 50:25Who won honorable mention in the
- 50:27poetry section of the contest
- 50:30with her poem little node? Erica
- 50:34thank you so much for that
- 50:36introduction and for having me here.
- 50:38I wrote this poem a few months ago at
- 50:40the beginning of the dedicated period
- 50:42that they gave us to study for the
- 50:44board exam and I just scrambled and
- 50:47scraped just to keep up in medical
- 50:50school and never really felt like I
- 50:52had time to review all the material
- 50:55that we've learned and past courses.
- 50:58And so this is how I felt.
- 51:02I beheaded all my plants the other day.
- 51:05My Hoya had just started
- 51:07to trail out of its pot.
- 51:09Miss Syngonium had a new leaf,
- 51:11still curled up like a cocoon.
- 51:14Mr Nepenthes had the
- 51:16beginnings of a new picture.
- 51:18They were so beautiful.
- 51:21I could have left them alone to grow,
- 51:23but I wanted to bring them
- 51:25home from school with me.
- 51:26So I snip snip, snipped,
- 51:29and I wrapped their oozing nubs and Moss
- 51:33and packed them away in my suitcase.
- 51:36Now they are here with me in California.
- 51:39They sit in water trying to grow roots.
- 51:43I imagine they are asking themselves.
- 51:46Didn't I already do this?
- 51:50Meanwhile,
- 51:50I study for my board exam and ask myself,
- 51:55didn't I already learn this?
- 51:57Shouldn't I already know this?
- 52:01Part of me wants to believe I didn't.
- 52:04Because I don't.
- 52:06It scares me how profoundly I forget.
- 52:10As easily and completely as a scissor sniff.
- 52:15I remember Embryology the same way
- 52:18my plants remember their old roots.
- 52:21These things that were once ours.
- 52:24They are no help to us now.
- 52:27We will all just have to start over.
- 52:31Sometimes people spend hundreds of
- 52:34dollars on little pieces of plant stem.
- 52:39These are called notes.
- 52:41They're the shape and size of Tootsie rolls.
- 52:45They have no leaves and no roots.
- 52:48Just the little stem cells hidden away.
- 52:52People trust their ability
- 52:53to grow roots and leaves,
- 52:55but they are paying only for potential.
- 52:59This scares and disturbs me.
- 53:03But it also comforts me.
- 53:05For I am like a node.
- 53:07No roots yet, no leaves yet.
- 53:11I probably cannot detect your murmur.
- 53:14A fortune is riding on that to change.
- 53:18Maybe it's a good investment. I hope so.
- 53:22We will all just have to wait.
- 53:25Thank you.
- 53:31Thank you so much, Erica.
- 53:33I think probably everybody
- 53:35on this has felt that way.
- 53:37So thank you so much for
- 53:39putting that to words.
- 53:41So eloquently, thank you.
- 53:44It was wonderful.
- 53:46Next, we have Barbara Odak.
- 53:49Barbara is a Yale School of Public
- 53:51Health student to graduate this year,
- 53:53Barbara won second place,
- 53:54tied for second place in the
- 53:56prose section of the contest.
- 53:58For her letter for her piece,
- 54:00entitled A letter to SARS,
- 54:02Kobe 2 from HIV.
- 54:05Barbara
- 54:08thank you so much. Let me share my screen.
- 54:16Can you see this?
- 54:19Yes, I'm sorry with this piece.
- 54:22Last year after sitting in an HIV TB
- 54:25class and wondering how come we had had
- 54:29made such huge advancements in COVID,
- 54:32but we still had a lot of work to do.
- 54:36In regards to HIV AIDS, especially
- 54:38coming from Africa come from Nairobi,
- 54:40Kenya and Africa is still a continent
- 54:44with the greatest global burden of HIV,
- 54:47so this is what came out of that.
- 54:52A letter to SARS, COVID 2 from HIV.
- 54:55Dear SARS, covie too.
- 54:57It was a pleasure to learn of your
- 54:59existence and know that another disease
- 55:01has come to cause such a global impact.
- 55:04It has been interesting to watch
- 55:06your progression over time and
- 55:08see how the world has responded.
- 55:10To be honest, I didn't think you would
- 55:13last very long with the medical advances,
- 55:16the humans seemed to develop each day
- 55:18I had given you just six months before
- 55:20they would forget of your existence.
- 55:23You have surprised me on that
- 55:25with your impressive notation,
- 55:26skills and ability to be
- 55:29progressively contagious.
- 55:29You're on your way to three years.
- 55:32I thought it would be nice to
- 55:33reflect on your journey and perhaps
- 55:35teach you some life skills.
- 55:37After all,
- 55:37it has been 40 years since I was discovered.
- 55:40Rick have ocarinas and
- 55:42I'm still going strong.
- 55:45The fastest testing humans generally
- 55:47don't like testing and I can't figure
- 55:50out why this buys us time though.
- 55:52Time to get new hosts and
- 55:54spread like wildfire.
- 55:56It was about four years from the
- 55:57time of my discovery to the time
- 56:00that fast blood test was available.
- 56:02That coupled with my long latency,
- 56:04I had a head start.
- 56:06Unfortunately for you,
- 56:07so ours it was a couple of
- 56:09months between your discovery.
- 56:11In testing.
- 56:12Despite that you have still done
- 56:15well being able to spread through
- 56:17exposure to respiratory fluids
- 56:19has given you an advantage.
- 56:21I could only envy.
- 56:22I can't believe how widespread
- 56:24they have made tests for you.
- 56:26Your best bet is to target
- 56:28understaffed communities where
- 56:29access is and so prevalent and
- 56:31why they have to pay for testing.
- 56:33It's a good thing such inequality
- 56:35still exist in the world even in 2022.
- 56:392nd is prevention.
- 56:411 disadvantage of your mode of
- 56:43transmission is that there are
- 56:45immediate remedies to limit infection.
- 56:46I had underestimated the capabilities
- 56:48of humans to use the law for
- 56:51the good of public health.
- 56:52They did it with the so-called
- 56:54mask mandates they put in place.
- 56:57They gave me the least confidence in you,
- 56:59making it.
- 57:00The good thing is that the
- 57:02diverse nature of humans.
- 57:04They're always those who are non compliant,
- 57:06wearing masks and going as far as holding
- 57:08rallies to protest, stay at home measures.
- 57:12That bugged out.
- 57:13Great for you.
- 57:14I,
- 57:14on the other hand,
- 57:15don't have such problems with my main
- 57:18motive transmission being sexual intercourse,
- 57:20I think I'm pretty set for life.
- 57:23Hopefully they don't think of
- 57:25coming up with something as
- 57:26crazy as HIV testing mandates.
- 57:28The good news is I'm still
- 57:31fighting the bad news.
- 57:33So are humans.
- 57:33If I've made it to 40 years without
- 57:36being eradicated and without a
- 57:38successful vaccine being developed,
- 57:40there must be something I'm doing right.
- 57:42Lest I forget,
- 57:43you're invited to my 41st
- 57:45birthday on December 1st.
- 57:47Actually,
- 57:49the humans commemorated
- 57:50meet annually on that day.
- 57:51As I sit back,
- 57:53relax and gasp Isaac relief that I
- 57:56have made it through another year.
- 57:58Hope to see you there says COVID too.
- 58:01Stay safe. Regards, human
- 58:04immunodeficiency virus and.
- 58:11Just wonderful. So clever.
- 58:14Thank you for for presenting that
- 58:18I appreciate that that was great.
- 58:20The chat is saying so well done hysterical.
- 58:22Thank you. It's really clever.
- 58:25Thank you. Great.
- 58:29Grace Wang is a Yale School of
- 58:32Medicine student to graduate in 2025.
- 58:35Grace has honorable mention in
- 58:37the art visual arts category of
- 58:40our contest with a submission
- 58:42entitled Weathered grace.
- 58:46Hi, thank you so much for
- 58:48putting this event together.
- 58:50It's really I'm really grateful to be
- 58:51able to share my work with all of you.
- 58:55So this is my piece entitled weathered.
- 59:00The backdrop that inspired this piece was
- 59:03basically just the collective vulnerability,
- 59:06fatigue and isolation that was felt
- 59:09by and expressed by many people
- 59:11in my life during the pandemic,
- 59:13and in creating this piece I was also
- 59:15reflecting on the role of art in my life.
- 59:18I spent a lot of the pandemic just
- 59:20creating art in my backyard and
- 59:22also on the coast of Washington
- 59:24where I'm from by the ocean,
- 59:26and I found a lot of peace
- 59:29and solace just
- 59:30being there in nature.
- 59:32Both on sunny days as well as on
- 59:34days that were drenched by the ever
- 59:36consistent Pacific Northwest rain.
- 59:38And so I wanted to capture this idea
- 59:40of the heart as part of the landscape
- 59:42that it's in taking advantage of the
- 59:45fluidity of watercolor as a medium.
- 59:48So yeah, I was
- 59:48just hoping to capture
- 59:49this dual depiction
- 59:50of the heart as weathered,
- 59:52but also part of the landscape
- 59:54that it's set in. Thank you.
- 01:00:05Thank you very much,
- 01:00:07that's beautiful and the chat
- 01:00:09people are saying gorgeous.
- 01:00:10I love the colors.
- 01:00:12Thank you so much. Beautiful,
- 01:00:14love your piece and the story behind it.
- 01:00:17Congratulations beautiful.
- 01:00:17Thank you Grace for sharing that with us.
- 01:00:24Aaron Phillips is a Yale physician
- 01:00:27assistant online program
- 01:00:28student to graduate in 2023,
- 01:00:30Aaron won honorable mention in
- 01:00:32the visual arts category with his
- 01:00:35submission entitled Holding on.
- 01:00:37Aaron. Thank
- 01:00:40you so much for having me.
- 01:00:42I will share my screen.
- 01:00:48So this is my drawing that I made.
- 01:00:52I learned or started to try to
- 01:00:55learn how to draw during the
- 01:00:57didactic year of my schooling.
- 01:00:59I was, I got an iPad Pro so I got
- 01:01:03procreate and I was trying to listen
- 01:01:05through lectures while not losing my mind.
- 01:01:08So I picked up drawing.
- 01:01:10This was one of the first drawings
- 01:01:12that I made where I figured
- 01:01:13this was kind of my style that
- 01:01:15I kind of figured something out.
- 01:01:17So I took an image and cut it so
- 01:01:19that you couldn't really see who was
- 01:01:21who and who was holding on to who.
- 01:01:24So it was just kind of this fun
- 01:01:27image of a continuation of two
- 01:01:29people holding on to each other and
- 01:01:31then kind of getting lost in it.
- 01:01:33So I hope you enjoy it.
- 01:01:47Oh, thank you Aaron.
- 01:01:49Wonderful people are saying
- 01:01:51lovely gorgeous gorgeous wow.
- 01:01:54So nice thank you for sharing that.
- 01:01:57It's very spectacular.
- 01:02:00We'll hear more from Aaron a little bit.
- 01:02:02But now Next up we have Simi or Detrola.
- 01:02:06Who's a Yale School of Public
- 01:02:09health student to graduate in 2023?
- 01:02:12Simi won honorable mention in the
- 01:02:14Prose category of the contest with
- 01:02:17a submission entitled Kismet Simi.
- 01:02:22Thank you so much Cynthia.
- 01:02:25I'm so honored to just be in
- 01:02:27the midst of all of this talent.
- 01:02:29Thank you so much.
- 01:02:31Everyone who shared so far my name is Simi.
- 01:02:34I am from Nigeria, Nigeria and Africa,
- 01:02:37is rich in culture and tradition and a lot
- 01:02:42of this cultural and traditional beliefs
- 01:02:45form a huge part of our identity and mine.
- 01:02:49They also influence the way that we interact
- 01:02:52with the world with science and technology.
- 01:02:55Also with medicine,
- 01:02:57this story is loosely based on three events
- 01:03:01and it is about mental health beliefs
- 01:03:05that have been tagged superstitious but
- 01:03:08are still very prevalent in Nigeria today.
- 01:03:12This is kismet.
- 01:03:15We lived on the same St until
- 01:03:17I was 12 years old.
- 01:03:19It was a regular street where
- 01:03:21nothing ever really happened.
- 01:03:22We were never close to our neighbors
- 01:03:25and my brother Aki and I were
- 01:03:27not friends with the other kids.
- 01:03:29When I turned 8 Baba,
- 01:03:31my maternal great uncle moved in with us.
- 01:03:36Baba never said much of anything to anyone
- 01:03:39he spent most of his time in his room,
- 01:03:41and he only sat to eat with us
- 01:03:43because my mother refused to
- 01:03:45let anyone eat in their rooms.
- 01:03:48My mother said once that Papa
- 01:03:50had a rough life,
- 01:03:52but when she wasn't listening,
- 01:03:54Uncle Gary,
- 01:03:54her brother,
- 01:03:55said Baba was the one who had made
- 01:03:57life rough for everyone around
- 01:03:59him and he could not imagine why
- 01:04:01my mother would bring him under
- 01:04:03her roof one rainy Thursday.
- 01:04:06The homeless woman who sat across
- 01:04:09the street from our house died.
- 01:04:11I remember the day because our
- 01:04:14handyman or Gary told us that it
- 01:04:16only rained that way on a weekday
- 01:04:19when an elephant was born.
- 01:04:21Ogary said a lot of things.
- 01:04:23Most of them I'm using.
- 01:04:25Some of them.
- 01:04:26I wish I had never heard you broke
- 01:04:29the news of the homeless woman's
- 01:04:31death to my mother and I when he
- 01:04:33came to fix the kitchen cabinet.
- 01:04:35He told us she had stayed in that same spot.
- 01:04:37For seven years,
- 01:04:39arriving at doing every day and leaving
- 01:04:42only when it started to get dark.
- 01:04:44I had watched her from duping
- 01:04:46doing my room many times.
- 01:04:48She never did more than say
- 01:04:50good morning to passes by while
- 01:04:53clutching a tattered stack full
- 01:04:55of things I could only imagine,
- 01:04:57Ogara told us a father was a wealthy
- 01:05:00farmer who used to live on our street.
- 01:05:03He went on to say that he strongly
- 01:05:06believed like most people,
- 01:05:07that a sudden mental decline was
- 01:05:11not without supernatural dimension.
- 01:05:13He also said.
- 01:05:14Matter of factly that it was
- 01:05:16sure that now that she was dead,
- 01:05:19the person who was responsible for a
- 01:05:22situation would soon take her place.
- 01:05:24My mother cleared a throat the
- 01:05:27way that she often did when Ogary
- 01:05:29started with these stories and
- 01:05:31he knew that was her reminding
- 01:05:33him that she did not allow such
- 01:05:35superstitious nonsense in her home.
- 01:05:37She prayed that the poor woman
- 01:05:40soul would rest in peace,
- 01:05:41and just as Ogary was about to say what
- 01:05:44he hopes would happen to the soul of
- 01:05:46whoever had caused their mental illness,
- 01:05:49my mother coughed again and told him
- 01:05:52the cabinets will not fix itself.
- 01:05:55Ogara's story about the homeless
- 01:05:56woman stayed with me all day long
- 01:05:59as I fell asleep that night.
- 01:06:01I imagined her as a sane,
- 01:06:04affluent woman and now straggly
- 01:06:07cornrows neat with every strand in place
- 01:06:10saying good morning one day and then
- 01:06:14suddenly being unable to stop doing so.
- 01:06:17It was raining.
- 01:06:18It was raining again when I
- 01:06:20woke up the next morning and as
- 01:06:21I went to shove my window,
- 01:06:23even in my drowsy state,
- 01:06:25I couldn't have missed him in the
- 01:06:27same spot the woman used to be.
- 01:06:29The sack of plastic bottles my mother hung
- 01:06:32by the kitchen door in his hand was Baba.
- 01:06:36My great uncle muttering good
- 01:06:39morning to the street vigilante.
- 01:06:41I do not fully recall what
- 01:06:43happened after that.
- 01:06:44I do remember watching from my window.
- 01:06:47As my father and uncle tried to get
- 01:06:50Baba into my father's car while he
- 01:06:53protested and yelled good morning
- 01:06:54louder than I had ever heard him
- 01:06:57say anything that was the last
- 01:06:59time I ever saw him.
- 01:07:01My parents told my brother Aki and
- 01:07:04I that they are taking Bubba to the
- 01:07:07federal teaching hospital and when and
- 01:07:09when I can't asked when we could visit,
- 01:07:11my mother said soon.
- 01:07:15We never did Ogara stopped coming
- 01:07:17to our house after that and we moved
- 01:07:21five months later, years after.
- 01:07:23When Aking got into medical school,
- 01:07:25he called me outside the first week
- 01:07:28in a psychiatry rotation to say
- 01:07:30that he knew what happened to Baba.
- 01:07:32He explained with a lot of medical jargon
- 01:07:34and more excitement than I thought.
- 01:07:37The situation warranted and concluded
- 01:07:40with a triumphant. It's all science.
- 01:07:43I didn't argue with them.
- 01:07:46But I wondered. Sometimes I still do.
- 01:07:52Thank you.
- 01:08:01That was wonderful.
- 01:08:03Striking beautiful.
- 01:08:05Cosimi touching beautiful chat
- 01:08:08is blowing up. Thank you so much.
- 01:08:12That was wonderful.
- 01:08:14Next, we have Christina Lepore.
- 01:08:16A Yale School of Medicine
- 01:08:18student to graduate in 2023,
- 01:08:19winning honorable mention in the prose
- 01:08:22category with her piece uniform.
- 01:08:27Thank you. And thank you to my fellow
- 01:08:31students who are so amazing and inspiring.
- 01:08:35I wrote this piece after a moving scene.
- 01:08:37I bore witness to during
- 01:08:39my Pediatrics rotation.
- 01:08:40I was struck by the similarities
- 01:08:42between the many roles we all play
- 01:08:44for when we care for the critically
- 01:08:46ill and the many ways that compassion
- 01:08:49can manifest itself in grave,
- 01:08:51grave and fragile circumstances.
- 01:08:54So the the piece is called uniform.
- 01:08:58Strands of September sunlight sliced
- 01:09:00through the hallway in the pediatric
- 01:09:03intensive care unit and gave the
- 01:09:05apprehensive array air around the
- 01:09:06infants hospital bed a paradoxical glow.
- 01:09:09Our tiny patient slept in a cocoon
- 01:09:11of wires and tubes undisturbed by
- 01:09:13the shrieks and pings of monitors
- 01:09:16she was unaware of the scrub clad
- 01:09:18phalanx assembling outside her door,
- 01:09:20poised for disaster.
- 01:09:23Ebstein anomaly had fashioned
- 01:09:24this two week old child's heart
- 01:09:27into a half hearted knot feebly
- 01:09:29bumping in her chest at top speed.
- 01:09:31She needed intubation,
- 01:09:32but we were not convinced that her
- 01:09:34heart would humor us through the
- 01:09:36stress of yet another procedure.
- 01:09:38A muted buzz of solemn voices pulsed
- 01:09:40around the crash cart opposite
- 01:09:42the infants room, as nurses,
- 01:09:44residents, and other medical staff
- 01:09:46took up an eerie vigil.
- 01:09:48Gloved hands laid out.
- 01:09:49Gleaming vials of epinephrine,
- 01:09:51saline syringes and sterile packets
- 01:09:53of tubing in the rhythmic dance
- 01:09:56of a well practiced protocol.
- 01:09:58Behind the palisade of blue scrubs,
- 01:10:00a figure in a white robe,
- 01:10:02girded with a crucifix,
- 01:10:03stood over the sleeping patient like us.
- 01:10:06He wore a uniform and was
- 01:10:08intent upon his work.
- 01:10:10He was sprinkling holy water from a
- 01:10:12glass bottle over the baby's soft head,
- 01:10:14as though he were tending to a flower
- 01:10:16bed rather than a hospital bed.
- 01:10:18His lips moved in a murmured
- 01:10:21conversation with her with God.
- 01:10:23Perhaps he was reintroducing
- 01:10:24the two to each other.
- 01:10:27He carried a benevolent
- 01:10:28quiet with him that I hope,
- 01:10:29would shield the baby girl from
- 01:10:31the uneasiness that vibrated
- 01:10:33through the hall outside her door.
- 01:10:35Her parents hung in the corner
- 01:10:37of her room like Gray ghosts
- 01:10:38draping weak arms around each
- 01:10:40other and watching the image of
- 01:10:42their sleeping daughter hungrily.
- 01:10:44They kept their distance as if
- 01:10:46the weight of their love and
- 01:10:48fear would physically crush her.
- 01:10:49For other families,
- 01:10:50baptism has an element of pageantry.
- 01:10:53A chubby cheeked infant decked
- 01:10:54out in a froth of white lace
- 01:10:57makes their spiritual debut.
- 01:10:58The priest's work that afternoon
- 01:11:00felt more like an insurance policy,
- 01:11:02a grim prophylactic measure.
- 01:11:04Just like the crash cart outside.
- 01:11:07Thank you.
- 01:11:15Thank you Christina. So eloquent.
- 01:11:22Wonderfully said.
- 01:11:25Wow, the chat is is congratulating you.
- 01:11:30Thank you for that beautiful piece.
- 01:11:34All the pieces are wonderful.
- 01:11:37Next we have. Angie,
- 01:11:40her a yell school of public health
- 01:11:44student to graduate in 2023.
- 01:11:47Angie, one second place in the
- 01:11:50visual arts category with a
- 01:11:52submission entitled Skin Archive.
- 01:11:57Angel.
- 01:12:01Hi, nice to see you. I'm Angie.
- 01:12:04It's so honored to be here and
- 01:12:06see all the wonderful arts.
- 01:12:09So today I want to share is my photo
- 01:12:13series is called Skin Archive so
- 01:12:15the Skin Archive is a three trial
- 01:12:18photo series that depicts my body
- 01:12:21dress in the projections of my past,
- 01:12:25Bruce scars and markers of mental illness.
- 01:12:29I focus on the process of code.
- 01:12:32This thing with my past trauma
- 01:12:34flashback and to further validate
- 01:12:37and confront those experience.
- 01:12:39I will also like to encourage.
- 01:12:41We all have the courage to be brave and
- 01:12:44to fight back and to create our new life.
- 01:12:47So this work was created.
- 01:12:49I think almost two years ago or a year
- 01:12:53and a half like when the COVID just
- 01:12:56become and I was in a pretty serious
- 01:13:00depression situation but hopefully.
- 01:13:02With my friends and my family,
- 01:13:04I was able to to work through that and have
- 01:13:08a pretty healthy mental status right now.
- 01:13:14Thank you all.
- 01:13:29Thank you for sharing that importance,
- 01:13:33background and important piece.
- 01:13:35I think we can all relate and we
- 01:13:39really appreciate your courage
- 01:13:41and sharing that. Thank you.
- 01:13:45Aaron Phillips is a Yale physician online
- 01:13:48program student who already presented
- 01:13:50a piece of art, graduating 2023.
- 01:13:52Aaron won second place in the
- 01:13:55poetry section of the contest,
- 01:13:57with Loving with long COVID Aaron.
- 01:14:02Thank you, I wrote this poem about
- 01:14:05my boyfriend who has been disabled
- 01:14:07from long COVID for a little over
- 01:14:10two years now and we've been really
- 01:14:12fighting to figure out how to manage it.
- 01:14:15And I know probably a lot of
- 01:14:17people at this point.
- 01:14:18Have someone near and dear to
- 01:14:19them that has battled with the
- 01:14:21long lasting effects of COVID.
- 01:14:23So this is a poem,
- 01:14:25coincidentally the longest poem I've
- 01:14:28ever written about waking up one morning.
- 01:14:31I pulled the covers over my bare shoulder.
- 01:14:34A light glow enters the room,
- 01:14:36telling me another battle begins.
- 01:14:37You roll over and hug me tight
- 01:14:39embracing me for what's to come I
- 01:14:42feel a tug at the foot of my bed.
- 01:14:43If it were death,
- 01:14:44it isn't dead but ferocious and
- 01:14:47its sadistic mindset of keeping
- 01:14:48its victims alive enough to wish
- 01:14:50it were the double instead.
- 01:14:51It starts at the base of your left foot.
- 01:14:54And travels to your thigh,
- 01:14:55grabs onto the muscles you ache to use
- 01:14:57to climb mountains like you once did.
- 01:15:00Even if they work today,
- 01:15:01you've been conditioned to refuse.
- 01:15:03I feel the shakes begin to start.
- 01:15:05A stiffness touches the back of my leg.
- 01:15:07I pretended to address your
- 01:15:09morning excitement,
- 01:15:10ready to spread me open and fill me up.
- 01:15:13Maybe your arm will move across
- 01:15:14my mouth to keep me from waking
- 01:15:16the birds still sleeping,
- 01:15:17then the tree outside my window.
- 01:15:19But the fantasy fades as the twitches begin.
- 01:15:22I remember that morning visitor
- 01:15:23doesn't want a menage a tois.
- 01:15:25It wants to cripple your neuromuscular
- 01:15:27system to prevent you from even
- 01:15:28thinking about touching me,
- 01:15:29let alone making me submit to
- 01:15:31your morning rush of testosterone.
- 01:15:33I feel it travel to your spine where
- 01:15:35it begins the process of deciding the
- 01:15:37path of destruction it will take today,
- 01:15:39like an E sider deciding the best way
- 01:15:42to distract to travel to the West
- 01:15:44side of Los Angeles should it take
- 01:15:46the 101 S to irritate the sciatica
- 01:15:48that you've developed as of late.
- 01:15:50Or numb the nerve endings on
- 01:15:51the back of your leg.
- 01:15:52Paresthesia is causing you to dissociate.
- 01:15:55Stop by the 1:10 to cause
- 01:15:57spasms in your lower back.
- 01:15:59Then take the 10 through your chest
- 01:16:01while turning up the base to its
- 01:16:03favorite song causing chest pain
- 01:16:04and palpitations all day long.
- 01:16:06Or maybe it will take the 101 N through
- 01:16:08the belly of the valley beeping at
- 01:16:10billboards for nausea and fatigue,
- 01:16:12prompting you to roll over
- 01:16:14to prolong your ***.
- 01:16:15Then jump on the 405 so it can
- 01:16:17spread through your lymph painting.
- 01:16:18Your armpits and trick you into
- 01:16:20thinking that you are sick.
- 01:16:21When it reaches your head and
- 01:16:22makes home in your skull,
- 01:16:24it lives like rich Brentwood, moms,
- 01:16:25hippies on bad trips in Venice,
- 01:16:27and morning marine layers over Malibu,
- 01:16:30headaches that ibuprofen won't cure.
- 01:16:32Hallucinations of the daunting
- 01:16:34future brain fog covering coastal
- 01:16:36mountains of working memory reminding
- 01:16:37us there's a reason we don't
- 01:16:39live there. I wait until you wake,
- 01:16:41we wait until this passes the two years
- 01:16:43with no answers depresses our chances.
- 01:16:46We keep our hopes high that it will
- 01:16:48end on its own, but until then we
- 01:16:50wait for doctors and insurances.
- 01:16:52To open their eyes to see that
- 01:16:54millions are still struggling without
- 01:16:56proper testing without a diagnosis
- 01:16:58without any real answer for a cure.
- 01:17:00We live so we will curl up in bed and
- 01:17:03wait for long COVID to cripple the world.
- 01:17:05Thank you.
- 01:17:10Thank you Aaron.
- 01:17:12That's an important story and
- 01:17:15we really appreciate that.
- 01:17:17Thank you, that was great.
- 01:17:21Contest winners that were not able
- 01:17:23to join us include Kyuri Satyam,
- 01:17:25a Yale School of Medicine student who
- 01:17:28graduated 2023 who won third place in
- 01:17:32the art section of the contest with.
- 01:17:36Her submission behind the scenes,
- 01:17:38the art of science.
- 01:17:48I think we're going to put that up.
- 01:17:49Yeah, there we go. Thanks, Karen.
- 01:17:53Carrie wrote the beyond behind
- 01:17:54the scenes the art of science,
- 01:17:57and she wanted me to read what was in
- 01:18:00her mind when she created this piece.
- 01:18:04There is an inherent beauty
- 01:18:05that lies in the research we do.
- 01:18:08Seeking the answers to questions yet unknown.
- 01:18:12This photo series aims to embody,
- 01:18:15through the lens of scientists,
- 01:18:17the art of research.
- 01:18:20Each carefully measured drop of reagent.
- 01:18:24A painstakingly maintained colony of cells.
- 01:18:28Specialized equipment
- 01:18:29wearing in the background.
- 01:18:33Yet in this beauty, there exists a
- 01:18:36quiet solitude in this community.
- 01:18:39We spent countless hours
- 01:18:41in the lab day and night.
- 01:18:45The world sees the breakthroughs,
- 01:18:47but they do not see the
- 01:18:50sacrifices behind the scenes.
- 01:18:57Karen, I think there's more
- 01:18:58than I think are there.
- 01:18:59Is this the only there we go?
- 01:19:32Thank you. It was wonderful. It's OK, Yuri.
- 01:19:38The last two are not able
- 01:19:40to be with us either.
- 01:19:42Nadie delicio a Yale School of
- 01:19:44Medicine student who graduate in 2023.
- 01:19:47One honorable mention in the
- 01:19:49poetry category of the contest
- 01:19:52with a poem entitled Recompense.
- 01:19:56Jeremy Mills from the Yale School
- 01:19:58of Nursing to graduate in 2024,
- 01:20:00one third place in the pros
- 01:20:03category with a poem of writing
- 01:20:05a piece entitled The Successors
- 01:20:07and we congratulate them as well.
- 01:20:13Thank you everyone for your
- 01:20:17submissions and for your participation.
- 01:20:20Narrative medicine enriches and enhances
- 01:20:22our experience as healers in a challenging
- 01:20:25world at a really challenging time,
- 01:20:28and I'm ever grateful to immerse
- 01:20:30myself and share the words of these
- 01:20:32talented health profession students
- 01:20:34as they navigate their training.
- 01:20:36Although we had a list of winners,
- 01:20:38each of the submissions we received is
- 01:20:40a winner, and we encourage our community
- 01:20:42to keep writing, keep producing art,
- 01:20:45keep feeling through the all the joys,
- 01:20:49sadness, frustration.
- 01:20:51And elation, that is life.
- 01:20:55Thank you everyone for your participation.
- 01:20:58I extend thanks to our ASL translators
- 01:21:02Jai and Cheryl and to Karen Cole,
- 01:21:05who, without whom this contest
- 01:21:08would never have occurred.
- 01:21:10Thank you, Anna Reisman,
- 01:21:11for allowing me to stand in for
- 01:21:14you this season, and to Sam,
- 01:21:16our technician,
- 01:21:17and mostly thank you to all of our wonderful.
- 01:21:21Participants for your submissions and for
- 01:21:25contributing so richly to our community.
- 01:21:29Thanks.