Today we’d like to introduce you to Liv Davis.
Hi Liv, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
I was a Ph.D. candidate at a top 20 school, but it turns out I hated it. So… I quit! I returned to my hometown of Cincinnati, OH to process a lot of self-loathing and inner turmoil caused by my false start at graduate school. I then had the opportunity to move out west with my boyfriend (now spouse) to Seattle, WA. I made a home and a small business as an independent artist in the city for years until I felt science calling again. I explored possible career paths within medicine as it combined the science I’ve always loved and my newly realized passion for working with people. Medicine is an inspirational intersection of science and service and where I’ve belonged all along. With this awareness, I proceeded with an application to medical school and returned to the Cincinnati area once again. There was still a missing piece, however, necessary to achieve fulfillment and happiness in my new role. This was creating and sharing my art with those around me. My projects have morphed to focus on creative writing, and most recently, a collection of poetry that I finished this summer. Writing for catharsis and healing has brought much-needed growth in my life and given me the strength to persevere through the start of my medical training. I can confidently say that neither my education path nor writing could exist without the other, and both work in tandem to keep me grounded on the good days and the bad.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I think the road is hardly ever smooth for anyone, but I feel it’s so worthwhile to reflect on the progress you’ve made and the triumphs you’ve achieved. Leaving grad school felt like an enormous failure at the time, and there have been many other equally-devastating moments since then. Medical school has tested my resilience most weeks, and burnout is a very real issue in medicine — just ask anyone working in this field. We have the opportunity to learn from pain and mistakes and turn these emotionally-charged moments into something concrete, relatable, and powerful. I’ve tried to do this with my art over the years, and my poetry is no exception. There is nothing I love more than when someone reads my work and says, “I relate to this so much,” or, “it’s as if you read my mind.” That human connection is something we all crave, and poetry can be a way of capturing that spark and spreading it in real-time. How amazing is that?
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My current focus is creative writing, and I’ve been finishing my first collection of poetry for a couple of months now. This piece spotlight’s themes of trauma, addiction, finding healthy love, and healthcare disparities, among other topics. The collection aims to capture my experiences over a large period of time that were formative and highly impactful, and not necessarily in a good way. I was amazed at how quickly the poems appeared on the pages of my little green notebook each afternoon, and I found peace in translating memories into evoking visual language. Poetry is a unique format in that it needs to convey its message in fewer lines than other forms of writing. You need to make the most of what you have to work with in order to connect with the reader. I have fallen in love with this challenge and made it a habit to write every day. Does this mean that every poem is a winner? Absolutely not, but my collection appeared before my eyes as I recognized overarching themes and stories woven by the pieces when read together. Sharing these poems was a vulnerable decision and not one I was keen on for quite some time. I finally got brave one afternoon and created an Instagram account for poetry posts. I was stunned at the number of people saving my work or sending me messages about resonating with a certain piece. It gave me more confidence to keep writing and keep sharing. I think that’s one of my favorite parts of this journey. People out there living their lives, just like me, gifted me a sense of empowerment I wasn’t able to conjure or grant myself. I learned this lesson many years ago, but am still seeing reminders constantly: connection with others leads to stronger connections with ourselves.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
There are so many people that have helped me, step by step, on my journey to where I now stand. The road here has been long and tough at many points, but I can wholeheartedly say that I have had lots of support from loved ones. My biggest advocate and cheerleader is my spouse, Calvin, and his patience and kindness serve as reminders of just how good life can be if we take a moment to look around. My loved ones’ encouragement has kept me focused on the bigger picture of taking care of myself while learning to take care of others. Many poems in my collection touch on the love that has been given to me and the continued guidance I’ve received in all aspects of my life. Life continues to be a juggling act but I am managing with the help of those that mean the most to me. I couldn’t ask for anything more in life.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/olyve_the_art
