OASIS FALL 2017
MEET THE CREATORS LAUREN BLAHA (MS2)
Hometown Holmdel, NJ Undergrad attended Rutgers University Favorite quote It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live - JKR Fun fact I have a horse, a ball python, and two hognose snakes!
AMY CHANG (MS2)
Hometown San Diego, CA Undergrad attended University of California, San Diego Favorite quote Nothing extraordinary comes out of being ordinary. Pages 4 - 7
Pages 22 - 23
NINA (CAMI) BURRUSS (MS 2)
Hometown Louisville, KY Undergrad attended Wake Forest University Favorite quote And where the words of women are crying to be heard, we must each of us recognize our responsibility to seek those words out, to read them and share them and examine them in their pertinence to our lives. – Audre Lorde Pages 26 - 29
MICHAEL C. LIN (MS1)
Hometown Chapel Hill, NC Undergrad attended UNC, Chapel Hill Favorite quote “Don’t let your dreams be dreams” – Jack Johnson Pages 14 - 19
BRYAN NETH (MS4)
Hometown Corfu, NY Undergrad attended Florida State University Pages 20 - 21
WILLIAM WARD (MS1)
Hometown Bloomington, IL Undergrad attended Augustana College (Rock Island) Favorite quote Caminante, no hay camino, se hace camino al andar. - Antonio Machado Walker, there isn’t a path, a path is made by walking. Pages 24 - 25
KELSEY TRAUNERO (MS3)
Hometown Newark, DE Undergrad attended Duke University Favorite quote “What if I fall? Oh, but my darling, what if you fly?” – Erin Hanson Fun fact I was a competitive figure skater for 13 years. Pages 10 - 13
JESSIE YKIMOFF (MS3)
Hometown Jackson, MI Undergrad attended Washington and Lee University Favorite quote Comparison is the thief of joy. Pages 8 - 9
Taiwan-01 a photo of a butcher’s stand at the local market. The old lady is the owner of the stand and the scale looked almost as worn as her.
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PHOTOGRAPH BY AMY CHANG
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PHOTOGRAPH BY AMY CHANG
Taiwan-lala Mountain-01 a photo of a fishing boat. The fishermen are licensed to fish and bring their catch to Taiwan’s fish market, but they do not have visas to step foot on land, so they live on their boats where they eat, sleep and do laundry.
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TENT ROCKS, NM
PHOTOGRAPH BY JESSIE YKIMOFF
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breathe in
ILLUSTRATIONS BY KELSEY TRAUNERO
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ILLUSTRATION BY KELSEY TRAUNERO
Fearless Flight Inspired by this quote: Never regret thy fall, O Icarus of the fearless flight For the greatest tragedy of them all Is never to feel the burning light.
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Mauna Kea
Digital Photograph (Hawaii, 2012)
This is the metal siding of a large telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea in Big Island, Hawaii. The mountain, roughly 14,000 feet in elevation gives astronomers a unique opportunity to observe the stars without being confounded by the lights of the cities below.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL LIN 15
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I stumbled across Times Square coincidently PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL LIN
when a large concert was ongoing.
Times Square Concert
Digital Photograph (New York, 2015)
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Morning Haze
Digital Photograph (Washington DC, 2016)
As the subway was approaching, I happened to take a picture before the camera could properly focus. Nonetheless, the blurred effect created a unique effect fitting to the haze that our rushed morning commute usually is.
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Left ICA
PAINTING BY BRYAN NETH
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PHOTOGRAPHS BY LAUREN BLAHA 23
COMMUNITY, HEALING, AND RECIPROCITY A community is the mental and spiritual condition of knowing that the place is shared, and that the people who share the place define and limit the possibilities of each other’s lives. It is the knowledge that people have of each other, their concern for each other, their trust in each other, the freedom with which they come and go among themselves. -Wendell Berry On a whim, I moved to Seattle with my girlfriend in 2014. We found an apartment on a busy road in an unfamiliar neighborhood. I was a stranger to the city and I definitely felt like one. Since I had no professional connections, I decided to deliver food on my bike through an app called Postmates. Every day, I would bike up to 50 miles to earn about $50. Even though we rented the cheapest apartment we could find, the financial reality of city-living loomed over me. As I delivered expensive food to million-dollar homes, I felt evermore like an outsider. My college education seemed useless as I biked the streets, up and down massive hills, providing the rich with niceties while I struggled to afford my daily necessities. When I returned home from a day of biking, I submitted as many job applications as I could with my last morsels of energy. I became anxious to establish financial security. But just as pressing as earning a steady income, I craved a sense of belonging and purpose. Since graduating from college, I had not held a job or lived anywhere for longer than several months. My mind and soul felt broken by the transient nature of my life.
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I finally received a phone call: an invitation to interview for a position at Neighborcare Health, Seattle’s largest primary care provider for underserved communities. The job was a front desk position at a clinic just down the street from my apartment. Dressed in a full suit, I showed up to the interview at a local coffee shop. I was incredibly overdressed. But of the untold dozens of applications that I had submitted, this was a top prospect. During the interview, I made my interests and intentions clear. I was drawn to Neighborcare Health because it provides care to the underserved in Seattle: the homeless, low-income, immigrants, heroin addicts, etc. I also majored in Spanish in college and wanted to work with Hispanic communities. Overall, I wanted the job because I am an idealist. I believe in providing the best care to those with the most need. I got a job offer. As a newcomer to the clinic and to the city, I didn’t quite understand the extent of the health disparities that affected Seattle. But my enthusiasm for Neighborcare Health
remained, even as the work proved to be more difficult than I anticipated. Not only was the clinic fast-paced, but I sometimes found patients challenging to work with. I cared deeply about every patient’s satisfaction with her or his care, so I enjoyed working with patients that were kind and gracious. However, some patients felt so financially and socially ostracized, that they doubted the authenticity of the clinic’s intentions and the authenticity of my desire to help. For others, the clinic was one of the few safe places that a patient knew, so they would unfurl their emotional baggage to me and my colleagues at the front desk. Confused by the extent of our patients’ distress, I coped by developing a thick skin. Somehow, sharing each patient’s joys and burdens became more bearable. With time, I lost my thick skin and even the most distressed patients only aroused a sense of empathy within me. In spite of their challenges, every patient was interesting, complex, and worth listening to. I developed a sense of solidarity with each patient and formed meaningful relationships. They would greet me by name and Hispanic patients no longer asked me, “Does someone speak Spanish?” I loved many of them as if they were a friend or family member. Two women jokingly proclaimed to be my mother and proudly addressed me as their son every time they came into the clinic. Returning patients saw my face as one that they could trust, one that would advocate for their well-being. Just as Neighborcare Health offers a health care home for its patients, it provided me with a workplace home: a sense of community, place, and belonging that I desperately craved. Upon my arrival to Seattle, I was desolate. But at Neighborcare Health, I became surrounded by colleagues that genuinely wanted to improve their corner of the world. I became surrounded by patients that faced immense challenges in their
lives, yet offered me the privilege of being a part of their lives and their care. Not only was Neighborcare Health a healing place for patients, it was a healing place for me. A career in medicine often comes with prestige and a comfortable salary. But it is apparent that living a life of brotherhood and sisterhood with one’s community outweighs and supersedes any individual achievement. Such a decentralized definition of success makes one vulnerable, but also makes the essence of every day and every moment that much more meaningful. I now realize that the art of healing is not a unilateral activity. Through stewardship of one’s community, a caretaker is nourished with purpose. This apparent reciprocity fueled my commitment to the clinic. The work was challenging and didn’t pay a whole lot, but the value of the experience transcended the tangible benefits. I promised myself not to leave the clinic unless I was faced with extenuating circumstances. Eventually that time came: I was accepted to medical school. I never imagined that I would feel sad going to medical school in exchange for a front-desk job. Leaving the clinic and the patients perturbed me, but affirmed the importance of the camaraderie that I felt. Even though I am now mostly confined to classrooms, I am here for my patients. I am here so that I can someday more fully commit to a community’s well-being. -WILLIAM WARD
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Being looked at, Being seen, What do you see (when you look at me)? Pt. I (Oil, Acrylic, and Metallic Pigment on Canvas)
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ARTWORK BY NINA (CAMI) BURRUSS
Being looked at, Being seen, What do you see (when you look at me)? Pt. II (Oil, Acrylic, and Metallic Pigment on Canvas)
ARTWORK BY NINA (CAMI) BURRUSS
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