This is not your typical weekly portrait post.

This photo story is for Black History Month (although I celebrate black lives all day every day ok?!).

When I think of where I am today, as an African-American woman in medical school, I can't help but reflect on how unreal it is. Women like Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the first African-American women to earn an M.D. degree, paved the way for us to be here, in medical school today. It is not lost on me, how great a gift I have been given, and it is only right to honor the women that fought to open the doors that we get to walk through today.

I wanted to capture the joy we feel to be alive during this time, humbly receiving the gifts our ancestors left behind, while acknowledging the fact that we did not get here on our own.

We are here, standing tall on the shoulders of our ancestors.

I can feel them holding me up, their strength permeating through time.

"To forget one's ancestor's is to be a brook without a source, a tree without root." 

-Chinese Proverbs

We are here now, supporting each other, leaning on our sisters who are here with us, working to not only survive, but to thrive and open more doors for those who will come after.

I hope and pray that more black men and women, and other people of color in general, will pursue careers in medicine to make health care more welcoming for all. I believe that every healthcare office should feel like home. Safe. A space to be vulnerable in order to achieve the best wellbeing possible. That is what I am striving for.