Today I went to the redwood tree,
“I’ve shaken hands with death multiple times,” sophomore Vedanshi Prasad said.
greeted by the brush of its leaves, welcomed in its embrace.
In January 2015, Prasad was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a fast-growing cancer of the bone marrow. By the age of five, she had spent the majority of her life in the hospital. Battling the persistent side effects of chemotherapy, she was constantly tired, struggling to walk and even communicate.
Staring down at me –
“Trying to fit in at school as that one kid who was sick was really hard,” Prasad said. “They always kind of judge you on the surface.”
a person whose soul had been rewoven,
Isolation, coupled with stress, sickness and fatigue, impacted Prasad’s mental health in many ways. She found herself feeling lonely, frustrated and emotionally drained, constantly being exposed to painful treatments and death. With such foreign experiences, Prasad was often left questioning the validity of the emotions she was facing.
each seam taken out,
“There was a lot of me that was broken,” Prasad said. “I had seen a lot of bad stuff.”
restitched with soil and stone.
Bound by her dull hospital bed, Prasad began reading and writing. She particularly enjoyed reading children’s novels like Barbara Park’s “Junie B. Jones” series. One year after being diagnosed, she began her own writing journey, filling journals with her daily experiences and emotions.
“Writing in a sense healed me,” Prasad said. “‘It helped me channel my anger, my emotions, the feeling of, ‘Why did this happen to me?’ Paper doesn’t judge.”
As I let my sorrow tear through fractured skin, / it whispered back.
Although her hospital days were marked by pain, she grew to practice self-love instead of self-judgement by writing her feelings. Additionally, she began to recognize similar challenges like self-identity in the lives of others.
Its silence – / an invitation to nurse my bleeding wounds.
Prasad’s time at the hospital left her with a set of experiences to grow from and advocate for.
Today I went to the redwood tree.
“It shaped me in a lot of ways: personality-wise, human being-wise and human empathy-wise,” said Prasad. “I will forever be grateful that I did go through this because if I had to go back and change what I did, I would do the exact same thing over again.”
In the time she spent at the hospital, Prasad considered writing as more of a pastime. After she was discharged in 2018, writing became increasingly important to her. In November 2023, she took part in National Novel Writing Month, an annual writing challenge where participants attempt to write an entire novel from scratch in the month of November.
“I think I reached 50,000 words by the end of the month, which was really impressive for me because I didn’t think I could do that,” said Prasad. “My love for writing kickstarted from there.”
It greeted me once again, / tenderly repatching my soul with a silent hum.
Today, Prasad makes writing one of her biggest priorities. In her free time, she enjoys discussing new literature she finds interesting with her freshman English teacher, Jane Gilmore.
“She would put a little bit more effort forth than other kids,” Gilmore said. “ Her writing had a bit of a poetic slant: She talked about ‘this feeling of warm honey pooling in my belly. I knew exactly what she was talking about, but I’ve never heard it described quite like that.”
Caressed in its mocha branches, / jagged and rugged –
Reading impactful books inspired her to have the same effect on her readers. She found Khaled Hosseini’s “Kite Runner” especially touching, due to its perspective on themes like self identity.
a story carved in splintered skin,
“In my writing I like to talk from the perspectives of my own problems: fitting in and self identity,” said Prasad. “I try to reflect my problems in characters in my writing, so I can let everybody else in the world who feels like they don’t have a voice know that there is someone out there for them.”
washing my wounds / with honey and buttery sunlight.
On Aug. 16, Prasad challenged some of her own biggest fears: she published her work on Substack, an online publishing platform. She named her blog “Whispering Vines,” embodying her love for listening and her aim to inspire others.
“That’s such a scary thing to do, to put yourself out there in the world,” said Gilmore. “That sort of bravery as a writer is going to serve her so well.”
However, she frequently contemplated readers’ perception of her work, fearing they would find it unrelatable or incomprehensible.
“I don’t wish to put any person in the position I was in,” said Prasad. “But I was scared they wouldn’t see the vision in my writing or the meaning behind it.”
Today I went to the redwood tree.
“The goal of my writing is to reach the most broken and fragmented voices out there,” Prasad said.
I lay at its feet, / listened to the heartbeat of soil and stone
She recently committed to staff writer positions at online youth-led magazines Meridian Literary and Elysia Letters. Prasad hopes to continue her writing career for years to follow.
as its warmth spread through me,
“I have one or two students a year whose paths could lead them to be a professional writer,” Gilmore said. “I think she’s one of those people.”
washing me in quiet mercy.
“My nurses, my doctors, my surgeons, my nurse practitioners — everyone was so kind,” said Prasad. “They forced me, in a good way, to pursue my goals. I think that’s why I don’t want to give up on writing, because I feel that if I’m giving up on writing, I’m giving up on every kid out there that needs to have a voice.”
