Wrapped

“It’s weird,” she said. “This is one of the biggest accomplishments of my life, but it doesn’t feel like it.”

This person shared that in just over a month, she’d be the first person in her family to graduate from college. It was difficult not having her family's support, but she shared that she'd always felt like the black sheep of her family, so she was used to it and preferred to focus on what was next.

She planned to join the AirForce, and had dreams of using her education to help homeless Veterans in the future. Growing up she saw many family members who were Veterans struggle to get civilian jobs due to mental illness.

For herself, she dreamed of being able to do things not because she needed to to survive, but because she wanted to. She aspired to be able to make choices for her life to support her own mental wellbeing. “I hope my story can inspire others to push for what they want, no matter what they’ve gone through,” she said.

Listener Poet Jenny Hegland

Veterans Affairs Health Care Talent Academy (HCTA)

November 2022

The present is wrapped

in a blanket

of accomplishment,

woven with thick acceptance

made of necessity --

it’s heavy.

At work, I maneuver

a fifty-ton crane;

tie together shipping containers with steel bands

to keep them from moving

when the ship’s at sea.

Who sees me? Wrapped as I am

in this blanket, warm but worn.

I’m about to graduate

from college, first in my family.

I’ve had four years to process

they won’t be there to see it.

I grew up around machines

so the crane is easy.

What’s not is pushing

for what I want

& providing for myself

without asking for help.

The future is wrapped

in a blanket

of accomplishment

softened by struggle,

strengthened by choice,

my choice, to keep me well.

More Poems & Stories

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“I’m trying to focus on doing little things to make people feel better during everything that’s going on in the world,” she told me.

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“It’s hard to see others struggle,” she said. “How can I help with their struggle without struggling myself?”

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"I'd tell her it's OK to be loud...it's OK to challenge and to bring all of you into these spaces where no one looks like you..."

Delicate Hope

She was in the depths of transition and change in this “concentrated time.”

Safety Is A Six Letter Word

Retired from the military, she was brought back into nursing during the COVID pandemic.

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New Year’s Evolution

“I'm continuously questioning: did I do it right?" she said. "I’ve always done a good amount of second-guessing, but I’m re-learning how to show up differently.”

Wrapped

“It’s weird,” she said. “This is one of the biggest accomplishments of my life, but it doesn’t feel like it.”

Libation

"It changed me; It changed the way I look at life," said this woman about her profound experience during her pregnancy.

Our Own Legacy

“I’m not in a good place with everything happening in the world,” this poemee said.

An Impossible Choice

“It’s been more challenging than normal lately,” she said. “I’m only one person. It's a struggle for me to say no, but I can’t do everything that’s being asked of me right now.”

Forward

"I've been processing how to make the most of the small amount of life we have to live," said this physician.

Recursion

"I've been processing how to make the most of the small amount of life we have to live," said this physician.

Who's Noticing?

"I feel like this journey is unfolding before me,“ he said.

Feeling Small

“I like feeling small,” he told me. “Nature has always made me feel small.” He described the sense of wonder that feeling gave him.

To My Daughters, Who Will Need to Know

This physician had recently started a new job when the pandemic hit.

Decision Fatigue

“I feel like I have decision fatigue,” she told me. It was normal for her to make many choices at work, but COVID had dramatically increased the number of medical decisions she had to make at home.

Vibes

“I know ‘vibe’ is kind of a nonspecific term, but I think about people’s vibes all the time,” he said.“ Sometimes you come into a room and it’s just off.

Yosef the Builder

This physician discussed being the only one in his practice network with expertise in patients with a specific type of chronic pain.

So Much More to Medicine

“Our constituents are uniquely affected by the pandemic,” they said. This poemee was an educational psychologist who spoke about how much they missed working in person with med students, healthcare staff, and medical educators.

Re-set

"I grew from the experience – though I think it aged me 10 years!" This is how a resident described a turning point with a specific patient when he recognized how burned out he was.

Words of Silver

Although he had been through many stressful experiences in his life and recently, he always held onto his positive outlook. He took particular care to use words intentionally, paying attention to their connotations, so that his positivity extended to those that he interacted with as well.

A Kind Reminder

“There’s a constant feeling inside that I should be doing more,” she said. “But I also want to be kind to myself and recognize all that I’ve given.”

Endless Currents

These members of the Wellness team in the Department of Neurology at the University of Colorado each spoke about the importance of community and connection.

Stayin' Alive, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

She said she wanted a poem about the importance of CPR. As both a nurse and a CPR instructor, she spoke about how the rhythms of certain familiar songs helped her students internalize the rate of compression required.

Caregiver, Care For Yourself

He brought the tools of mindfulness and self-care to medical students, many of whom had been studying all this past year, 10 hours a day, day after day, in isolation.

Change of Pace

The pandemic had forced this woman to slow her life down drastically. Before, she’d travelled around every month for work, never stopping, working hard because she cared about her job. The slower pace created by social distancing had reminded her to cherish everything that life had to offer outside of work.

Forbearance

He had recently lost his father to COVID-19 and was reflecting on forgiveness. For the majority of his life with his father, they did not have a positive relationship. However, in the last three years of life, his father lost his memory and his personality changed into someone who was loving and kind.

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