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Creative Writing, 2024 Paulina Vo-Griffin Creative Writing, 2024 Paulina Vo-Griffin

DONE

This is a poem that was never supposed to exist, according to society. Kids should always be quiet and bear burdens of unspeakable pain. But no longer. This poem is a mix of dialogue, counting down, and introspective thoughts.

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Creative Writing, 2024 Paulina Vo-Griffin Creative Writing, 2024 Paulina Vo-Griffin

The Brick Wall

Perhaps the most valuable lesson I've learned in high school is that I live in a generation of brick walls. Me included. Being the ones stuck with only our own company for a crucial developmental year, we’ve somewhat lost the ability to bend. To put ourselves in another’s shoes, to meet someone at eye level.

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Creative Writing, 2024 Paulina Vo-Griffin Creative Writing, 2024 Paulina Vo-Griffin

(A)sexual Tension

(CW: sexual implications) Originally a longer piece, "(a)sexual tension" expresses the desire for intimacy beyond the norm of romance and sex, the frustrations of having a female body and the sexualization of Asian women. I've been a hopeless romantic since the day I mistook feelings of friendship for a crush in elementary.

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Creative Writing, 2024 Paulina Vo-Griffin Creative Writing, 2024 Paulina Vo-Griffin

Mehendi Rings

I wrote this piece for a 100-word microfiction project to reflect my changing mindset toward my culture. Growing up in an immigrant household, I always felt a ghost in my community, lingering between the realms of the American and Indian worlds—present in both but fully anchored in neither. I suppressed my Indian side until recently, as I've come to realize I can't be myself until I embrace all of my identity.

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Creative Writing, 2024 Paulina Vo-Griffin Creative Writing, 2024 Paulina Vo-Griffin

for m, I lost you.

My first poem, "for m", was written about a friend of mine, who isn't one I would like to lose. Originally it was more light-hearted, but this version reflects the truth that I feel I must tell about her struggle. My second poem is called "lost", which is about my own feelings about the vastness of the world and being left behind.

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Creative Writing, 2024 Paulina Vo-Griffin Creative Writing, 2024 Paulina Vo-Griffin

Lives I Could've Saved

With suicide rates in the United States increasing rapidly by each year, I felt that it was necessary to raise awareness for the thousands of people suffering. "Two Hundred and Twenty Feet" explores more of the analytical side of suicide, focusing on the two thousand people who have jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge to further relate to the community in my area.

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Creative Writing, 2024 Paulina Vo-Griffin Creative Writing, 2024 Paulina Vo-Griffin

Heaven Knows I'm Miserable

I wrote this piece in class when every patch of my academic competence had dried into dust. Sometimes I can my writing mind teetering into this other eccentric place. Usually, I ignore this side, re frame from any of its odd aspects, but on this special day: hot and estranged from my studies, it only felt right to follow its voice.

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Creative Writing, 2024 Paulina Vo-Griffin Creative Writing, 2024 Paulina Vo-Griffin

The Far Shore

The Far Shore was a practice piece to develop descriptions of each of the five senses. The creative process involved researching Japanese and Chinese spiritual beliefs about life after death, taking particular inspiration from Buddhist ideology surrounding the salvation of all souls.

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Creative Writing, 2024 Paulina Vo-Griffin Creative Writing, 2024 Paulina Vo-Griffin

In Dreams

My piece titled “In Dreams” is about a young man named Harry. Harry has dreams of himself as a child in a house and is being haunted by a creature. Through therapy sessions with Dr. Elisa Shaul many of Harrys’ secrets are uncovered. My piece covers themes such as repressed memories of childhood trauma.

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Creative Writing, 2024 Paulina Vo-Griffin Creative Writing, 2024 Paulina Vo-Griffin

A Fallen Angel's Memoir

In this piece, I wanted to make a comparison of an angel to my life as a non-binary teenager in today’s oh, so confusing world. Acceptance of the fact that I was different from most of my friends and family was a fact that made me ashamed for years, but when I touched the gate, when I accepted my fluidness as a part of who I am, I felt at peace.

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Creative Writing, 2024 Paulina Vo-Griffin Creative Writing, 2024 Paulina Vo-Griffin

Look at the Flowers I Got You

Look at the Flowers I Got You is a short fiction that shows but a small fraction of what grief can feel like when a loved one is gone. I find it intriguing when the same phrase is used at the beginning and end of a story with a different tone because it shows the impact that context has on a sentence.

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