Ashley Choe
Impaired Sunrise

AwardWhite Ribbon

SchoolKirtland High School

CityKirtland, Ohio

TeacherVickie Mitchell

InternAshley Choe

MediumHaiku

Writer's Statement

The direct translation of the Japanese haiku is: Sunshine, it's bright, and I'm sick. The pronunciation is "Hee-no-dae-de-su, hee-a-ta-ree-ga-ee-ee, bi-yo-kee-ga-sa." The English poetic translation is in the bottom right-hand corner. I chose this haiku to describe the child's life before the appearance of the second tumor. She was a fifteen-year-old girl whose life was just beginning. The "sun was rising" in her life. Her future is "bright." She has her whole life ahead of her, but she is sick again. The picture is that of a sunrise, with the sun brighter than the rest of the picture. This indicates that no matter the state of the environment of her body, hope is still bright on the horizon.