Emerging Student Voices

Page 77

La Escucho L E A H R YA N , B R YA N T U N I V E R S I T Y

When I started my career as a passionate photojournalist, I never expected it to be my demise. I was a naïve 20-something year old, ready to leave the United States and travel the world, capturing its majesty with the click of a lens. That was when there was beauty to capture… I had come back to Guatemala on a whim. When the depression became too much to handle, I knew there was only one cure: to go back to the place that had given me life in the first place. This country had inspired me to begin my career in photojournalism 20 years ago. Its indescribable spirit had awoken a hunger in me to capture the lives of people all over the world; how could one species live so differently? Now, a lifetime later, I was back, yearning for the indescribable knowledge that spread through the wind here— a wind which seemed to have passed through the United States unacknowledged, albeit uninvited. Now, I sat on a bus winding through the hilly dirt roads, on my way back to Monterrico. In my hand was the picture that had started my career—the one I had taken in Monterrico long ago, along the shores of the magnificent Black Sand beach. The picture captured the gummy smile of a young, Guatemalan child, standing at the waters’ edge, looking into the sea. Looking at the picture, I thought back to that day. In my broken Spanish, I had asked the young girl what she was doing. She had replied, “I am listening to the water, my grandmother asked me what it was saying.” Puzzled, I had turned from her and found who I assumed was the girl’s grandmother approaching me. After introducing myself as an aspiring photojournalist, I asked, “What does your granddaughter mean? What is the ocean saying?” The old lady scoffed, the wear of years in the sun burned into her face. A fire seemed to set itself ablaze in her eyes and I had known instantly that my question had awoken anger in her core. In broken English, she began to speak. “You Americans will never understand.

F I C T I O N & C R E AT I V E N O N F I C T I O N

77


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Articles inside

La Escucho: Leah Ryan, Bryant University

31min
pages 77-92

Why I Cry for Little Girls: Julia Raboy, Bates College

6min
pages 74-76

Swimming Lessons: Rebecca Mear, Gordon College

6min
pages 70-73

I Am Not a Home: Kiley McAleer, Emmanuel College

7min
pages 66-69

Minutiae 973.1: Lila Bovenzi, University of Rhode Island

23min
pages 48-59

sex dream: Lillian Grace, New York University Gallatin

10min
pages 60-65

God Spoke to Me Through the Car Stereo: Alexa O’Kane, Champlain College

1min
pages 42-43

I drop your photograph in the sea: Claire Kuo, Columbia University

0
pages 40-41

Submersion: Meg Peters, Roger Williams University

0
pages 46-47

plum rains (梅雨 Claire Kuo, Columbia University

0
pages 38-39

winter: Claudia Rosado, Boston University

0
page 33

Unlike Mike: Caleb Lewis, Bryant University

0
page 32

Driving to Look Out Point to See the Sunset: Riley Mayes, Southern Maine Community College

1min
pages 28-29

On the Rocks: Jean Mazlymian, York University

1min
pages 30-31

mono no aware: w.w. harris, MFA Program at Eastern Washington University

0
pages 36-37

headed inbound: Claudia Rosado, Boston University

0
pages 34-35

Full: Caleb Lewis, Bryant University

0
pages 26-27

Rx#: Sea : Mikaela Gresty, Bryant University

0
pages 24-25

Youth: El J Reyes, Johnson and Wales University

0
pages 16-17

Flashes: Lila Bovenzi, University of Rhode Island

1min
pages 12-13

On the Rocks: Michael Grassetti, Bryant University

1min
pages 8-9

My Responsibility to Live: Michael Grassetti, Bryant University

1min
pages 10-11

The New Historian: Nilsa Laine, Bryant University

1min
pages 18-19

countless stars: McKenna Themm, MFA Program San Diego State University

1min
pages 14-15

Rites: Sanjana Aiyar, Christ University

0
pages 20-21

Not a Goodbye: Sanjana Aiyar, Christ University, Bengaluru India

0
pages 22-23
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