My Choice
You say that it’s my choice? / So therefore I can choose? / I just cannot believe, / Those words you just used.
Off the Shelf
Off the Shelf is our section for creative works by medical students.
Medical Student Editor and Contributing Writer
East Carolina University Brody School of Medicine
Holly Ingram is a fourth-year medical student at the East Carolina University Brody School of Medicine in Greenville, North Carolina. In 2016, she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in biology with minors in chemistry and anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In her free time, Holly enjoys playing soccer and visiting waterfalls. After medical school, Holly would like to pursue a career in pediatrics.
Stories
Life is a collection of stories / Housed within us all / Pages of precious memories / Plastered upon our walls
On Choosing a Specialty
A decision was at hand. Which trail would lead him where he wanted to go? The right or left? Both or neither? A simple choice. An impossible choice.
The Stairway
Climbing the steps one foot at a time \ He fell short of just one. \ But it is a part of the paradigm \ So I convince him that his journey is far from done.
In Conversation with Ghosts
He wished he could talk to Jane. His Jane, not the paranoid woman who hid wads of cash from him in their sock drawer. His Jane would know what to do.
Perspectives on Building Rapport with Patients
While being inundated with information on most things that are normal and abnormal about the human body, it is important to remember that we learn all this information to treat patients, not to treat diseases.
Gift of Life
“Procurement tonight” — a text / I’ve been anxiously awaiting with both excitement and dread, / for on transplant service this means / a life must be lost to save another’s.
Expecting
She said, / “Doctor: / I know you’ll think I’m crazy, but / I really want to get pregnant.”
Hope, The Best Medicine (2018)
This painting is for patients and those who provide medical care who are in need of inspiration.
Basil
It was pink / like the flowers he buys his wife. / It was not uniform.
The Waiting Room
The room kept going in and out of focus. That was why she did not notice him at first. All she could pay attention to was the way her hands and feet kept going cold, hot and then cold again — all happening in step with the alternating blurring and clearing of her vision.
Tongue Tied
The motor commands that choreograph speech are a privilege to possess, though I frequently find myself thinking / about silence, / and the reasons for which I may choose to leave it unbroken.
Contributing Writer
Mayo Clinic School of Medicine
I'm currently in the Midwest at the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine and hoping to pursue a career in psychiatry, neurology or some combination of the two. What gets me through the cold, dark Minnesota winters is my writing, my hot yoga, and my perpetually growing to-do list of art projects. In continuing to pursue creative endeavors, and in working to engage my classmates in the arts, I hope to show people that creative expression can help to keep burnout at bay and help to keep humanism alive in medicine.