FIELD NOTES

INTIMA FALL-WINTER 2025-26

Click on the title of the essay to read.

And Do You Have Any Children? | Aidan Kunju

In a routine visit, a 76-year-old veteran shares an aching truth about fatherhood. 

Diary of a Plunge Year | Valk Fisher

Where does a body take refuge? For one mother, processing grief looks like ocean plunges and runs along the Portuguese coast.

Dying to Know | Lindsey Ulin

What do you do when it’s clear the end is near but no one wants to make the call?

First, Check Your Heart Rate | Cynthia Miller

The first rule of a code is to check your heart rate – but what happens when the person you love survives one?

The Humming Wire | Faith Galliano Desai

Anxiety takes shape as an electric current – restless, coiling, and winding.

Just Like Me | Matthew Canonico

A shared diagnosis connects a young child and a newly diagnosed medical student.

Letter to my Oncologist | Julia Dobner-Pereira

Patient-doctor relationships can feel like an emotional high-wire act.

Never Smoker | Jonathan Bock

Providing a truthful medical history — how many cigarettes have you had in your lifetime? — comes into question when faced with a life-changing diagnosis.

Out of Breath | Rebecca Tuttle

In the tangle of wires and monitors, a single decision offers a lesson on mortality.

Press On | Rebecca Efroymson

Tragedy, comedy or absurdist nightmare? The ritual of a mammogram in three acts.

The Strike | Pallavi Kenkare

The loss of a loved one hits home for a medical student in the most unexpected ways.

Stroke or Not Stroke | Rebecca Ripperton

Making the right call in a diagnosis and responding with empathy takes practice.

When I Grow Up | Layla Joudeh

Two years into being a doctor, an OB-GYN reflects on her childhood goal “to help people."