<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Amanda Fernandes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Amanda Fernandes holds a Bachelor\u2019s degree in Psychology from the University of Alberta. As a social justice writer for the Canadian Centre for Women Empowerment, she advocates to end the stigma against mental health and anti-sexual violence practices. She wishes to influence policymakers in minimizing hierarchies in those existing policies that allow society to maintain a patriarchal and oppressive system. Through her poetry, she aims to normalize individuals’ lived experiences, as she believes she can influence others to confront their prejudices and biases regarding anti-sexual violence, even if it is uncomfortable to do so.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
we are silent, sitting on empty park benches,
gently throwing pebbles into a pond.
i feel a plunge deep within,
as a dense circle forms within the water.
these are where our memories form,
like ripples penetrating out of our minds,
waves of shame wash my dreary eyes.
these ripples circle inwards towards my soul,
my past feels like my present.
my body responds in the safest way it knows how,
like ice shielding a pond in the middle of February,
my mind is frozen, my brain takes over my consciousness.
thoughts culminate into a spiral of emotions.
i did not yell.
i did not fight back.
i did not want this for myself.
we breathe in,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
we breathe out.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Alana Halliday<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n An Bui<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Amanda Fernandes Amanda Fernandes holds a Bachelor\u2019s degree in Psychology from the University of Alberta. As a social justice writer for the Canadian Centre for Women Empowerment, she advocates to end the stigma against mental health and anti-sexual violence practices. She wishes to influence policymakers in minimizing hierarchies in those existing policies that allow society… Continue reading Amanda Fernandez<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":353,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1692","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/connectionsnmhi.ualberta.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/connectionsnmhi.ualberta.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/connectionsnmhi.ualberta.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/connectionsnmhi.ualberta.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/connectionsnmhi.ualberta.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1692"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/connectionsnmhi.ualberta.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3093,"href":"https:\/\/connectionsnmhi.ualberta.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1692\/revisions\/3093"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/connectionsnmhi.ualberta.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/connectionsnmhi.ualberta.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
as vivid memories fade,
like the s p a c e s between the rings of a ripple.
we are silent, sitting on empty park benches,
gently throwing pebbles into a pond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a>Ripples of resilience<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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