{"id":26930,"date":"2025-05-04T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-04T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/?p=26930"},"modified":"2025-04-05T23:27:56","modified_gmt":"2025-04-06T03:27:56","slug":"capturing-campus-four-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/2025\/05\/04\/capturing-campus-four-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Capturing Campus: Four Years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Four Years<\/p>\n\n\n\n

tears shed with bright panic<\/p>\n\n\n\n

at the sight of a new home<\/p>\n\n\n\n

alone in a mask<\/p>\n\n\n\n

how can one make friends <\/p>\n\n\n\n

six feet apart<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied for a job<\/p>\n\n\n\n

writing poems to regret (not now, but later)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I learned that I hadn\u2019t learned Spanish (or English)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would start again<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in a cold sweat at 1:00 am<\/p>\n\n\n\n

as my roommate dry heaved liquid fun <\/p>\n\n\n\n

into a trashcan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I met a person<\/p>\n\n\n\n

who asked to sleep with me<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I made art,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

spent holidays at home, where things felt wrong<\/p>\n\n\n\n

but never went on as long as I hoped<\/p>\n\n\n\n

had my future read<\/p>\n\n\n\n

embrace who you are, who you love, <\/em>they said<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I did neither at 19 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

in Chicago, I was low below the river <\/p>\n\n\n\n

back at work, then to school<\/p>\n\n\n\n

again, I met a roommate<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Halloween was football and fishnets<\/p>\n\n\n\n

nightlife and laughter in Grand Rapids <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I met more writers, more friends <\/p>\n\n\n\n

turned 20 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

watched my favorite person graduate<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in the fresh June heat<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I felt happy for the first time in a long time<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied for a job<\/p>\n\n\n\n

wrote a book I\u2019ll never publish<\/p>\n\n\n\n

fed goats and peeled through corn stalks <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ran a club, felt grown<\/p>\n\n\n\n

hit another low in the ER (I took my notes to study)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

before turning 21 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

drank and said goodbye<\/p>\n\n\n\n

hit lower than the ground<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought you couldn\u2019t fall from the floor<\/p>\n\n\n\n

stood up, took off to my last year<\/p>\n\n\n\n

cried for different reasons<\/p>\n\n\n\n

looked long and hard in the mirror <\/p>\n\n\n\n

wondering where the time went<\/p>\n\n\n\n

whether it was worth it<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d like to say it was, so I will<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was worth it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

All of this to say, I am enormously lucky to have lived and grown here. Although my undergraduate years were hard (harder than I anticipated), I have gained the confidence, companionship, and courage to keep reaching. I want to extend my thanks to the arts, ink. program director for providing me with the opportunity to express myself on this website. Thank you to everyone who has read my writing. Your support means more than you know. With that, I hope to see you around. Go Blue! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Four Years tears shed with bright panic at the sight of a new home alone in a mask how can one make friends  six feet apart I applied for a job writing poems to regret (not now, but later) I learned that I hadn\u2019t learned Spanish (or English) I would start again in a cold […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2246,"featured_media":25727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9,2034,1036,533,1520,34,281,15,534],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26930"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2246"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26930"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27157,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26930\/revisions\/27157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}