The Impostor
Here I am, one week from Match — / Decisions that come with a catch. / I know not who I’ll be quite soon / Nor where I’ll be to play in tune.
Off the Shelf
Off the Shelf is our section for creative works by medical students.
Contributing Writer
James H. Quillen College of Medicine at East Tennessee State University
Pooja Jagadish is a fourth-year medical student at the James H. Quillen College of Medicine at East Tennessee State University. She graduated from Vanderbilt University with a double-major in Anthropology and Women's and Gender Studies and co-founded a student organization to raise awareness about abuse on college campuses. During medical school, she created the Quillen High School Outreach Program to inspire regional high school students to pursue health careers in medically-underserved Southern Appalachia. In her free time, Pooja enjoys writing short stories and poetry and playing the piano.
Amazing Grace
When you look at their white coats / Do you see what I see? / Do you see future doctors / Who are struggling to be
πάθος (pathos)
in path lab / the residents / pass around organs / and explain
Anatomy as Art: Installation #19
At Albany Medical College, upon our orientation to gross anatomy, we are asked to draw our feelings on blank index cards prior to entering the cadaver laboratory. As we progress through the year, our sentiments regarding anatomy may remain the same, or may change, and these drawings allow us to look back at this milestone we crossed as budding medical students.
Voices in the Clinic Room
What happened to his smile? / Minutes ago, he was beaming. / Now the patient’s face contorted as he yelled. / Fury filled every crevice and crack of his face.
Thanksgiving
I found such peace in our stillness. / Your stomach rumblings almost music. / I caught myself peeking ever so often, / to find solace in your breathing.
A Bridge Too Far (2016)
A digital illustration by medical student David Yu.
Not My Bones
These are not my bones. / I do not know from where they come, / Or to whom they belong;
Anatomy as Art: Installation #18
At Albany Medical College, upon our orientation to gross anatomy, we are asked to draw our feelings on blank index cards prior to entering the cadaver laboratory. As we progress through the year, our sentiments regarding anatomy may remain the same, or may change, and these drawings allow us to look back at this milestone we crossed as budding medical students.
Wistful Thinking (2016)
“All an average medical student wants in life is knowledge, fitness, travel, individuality, and a sense of direction (is that too much to ask?)”
Testimony (2016)
An explosion of peaceful energizing love / Hidden sun god and goddesses / Cropping the harvest
Anatomy as Art: Installation #17
At Albany Medical College, upon our orientation to gross anatomy, we are asked to draw our feelings on blank index cards prior to entering the cadaver laboratory. As we progress through the year, our sentiments regarding anatomy may remain the same, or may change, and these drawings allow us to look back at this milestone we crossed as budding medical students.
Medical Student Editor and in-Training Staff Member Emeritus
University of Florida Fixel Movement and Neurorestoration Institute
Nita Chen is a current movement disorders fellow at University of Florida Movement and Neurorestoration program. She is Class of 2017 medical student at Albany Medical College. To become cultural, she spent her early educational years in Taiwan and thoroughly enjoyed wonderful Taiwanese food and milk tea, thus ruining her appetite for the rest of her life in the United States. Aside from her neuroscience and cognitive science majors during her undergraduate career, she holed herself up in her room writing silly fictional stories, doodling, and playing the piano. Or she could be found spazzing out like a gigantic science nerd in various laboratories. Now she just holes up in her room to study most of the time.