#graduation2020

Today would have been the day that I would GRADUATE! 👩‍🎓

It's crazy to think that it's been six years since I entered in medical school. But in reality, this has been a dream since I was 6 years old. I remember vividly, on a school quiz for father's day, how I changed my mind from becoming a hairdresser and wrote doctor instead. From that moment on, I fell in love with the field, with what I would study, the kind of work I would have, daydreaming of becoming a Grey's Anatomy character.👩‍⚕️

I worked my butt off to get here and it's surreal to think that I've accomplished what 15 year old Angela proudly stated she would follow in the beginning of high school. People thought I was crazy to dream this big, some thought I wasn't good enough. I also doubted myself but ultimately, my hard work paid off, with the help of those who believed in me when my faith wavered.

All of this to say that when you put your mind into something, you can do anything!✨ It won't always be easy, it won't be always be as you planned it (nothing about medical school was as I expected!!) but in the end, you have yourself to thank for all the hours, tears, sweat and sacrifices, that led you to the moment you dreamed about!

I graduated from med school. This photo shoot was meant to capture what it felt like.

They said that it would be over by spring break.

It's almost Christmas.

I breathe in deeply as I look at the plethora of masks on my desk.

I know I am privileged to have had survived this far-

But I look at the things I've lost

My senior year was over before it started.

Spring break turned into may.

Then June and July passed by.

Suddenly it was December and nothing was better.

We'd missed out on prom

Our graduations weren't the same

My freshman year of college was a new level of different

Our grades were slipping as we watch loved ones die

And our political leaders provided garbage bags to our healthcare workers.

We are the graduating class that didn't get to graduate

We got our diploma's and our sashes

But not all without risk of spreading it to our grandparents and friends.

We cried because we knew what we had lost

But we also cried for the people around us dying on shared ventilators.

A girl younger than me died of COVID-19 in the country next to mine.

Isn't it terrifying?

There are people around me telling me it's not fucking real.

That it is some political cash grab by the US Government

Isn't it selfish to believe all those deaths are fake because YOU don't like the narrative

Because it forces you to be selfless

It makes you have to care about others

But it's not hard.

To find empathy in the agony of others

I just want my little brother to have a normal graduation

I don't want him to have to walk on stage with a mask

With people sitting so far apart that you can't even congratulate them

I want him to feel like he accomplished something

Because it feels like no time has passed since April

Mindy and BJ’s Little Picture Advice.

BJ: “If you’re on a movie set, you get the coffee from the craft services table NOT the catering truck. They’re very different coffee experiences.”

Mindy: “Beej. Come on.”