I Already Miss This

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"I struggled to make friends until my junior year of high school," she said.

"Then I finally opened up and became friends with so many people." She was now a freshman at Georgetown University and was learning how to bond with her new peers.

"I’m pledging the service fraternity this spring and at first I was having a hard time feeling like I was part of everything," she said. "But the other day we read these poems about friendship and brotherhood and they made me feel so connected to everyone."

Listener Poet Ravenna Raven

Georgetown University Medical Center

March 2020

I miss people even when

I’m in the same room as them.

I already miss this experience

and I’m still in it.

When I was growing up

we moved a lot

and had to leave

anyone I met.

It’s hard to make connections

knowing they will end,

but I also know

I won’t look back

and regret anything.

More Poems & Stories

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The Mind is a Rabbit Making Warrens of its Grief

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High Notes

She reflected on how her resilience was born from moments of shared mirth amid life's trying chapters.

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We are expected to research, contribute to scholarship, earn grants – all on our own time.

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Every day, I try to see through the patient lens, and I ask: what can we do to change this broken system?

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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..."

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

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“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.”

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

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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.”