September Newsletter
- amwautd
- Sep 2
- 15 min read
Updated: 24 hours ago
2025 Edition
“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars, to change the world.”
Harriet Tubman
The Editor's Take: Welcome!
Welcome back, AMWA UTD, to a new school year!
My name is Gauri Guruprasad, and I am thrilled to serve as the AMWA Newsletter Editor-in-Chief during my final year at UTD. This year, we will continue to feature your favorite columns: The Sex Talk You Never Had, Spotlight, and Hot Button. Additionally, we will be introducing a new column: Booked, where we will be paging through the lives of doctors as read via memoirs and autobiographies, reflecting on their journeys, insights, and the introspective lessons they offer.
✧˖°. Heads up: check out the bottom of the newsletter for a crossword challenge. Email me your answers for a little reward! .°˖✧
This year, our committee of writers includes: Sahaana Anand, Sasha Burford, Abhi Saravanan, Samhitha Palla, Sarah Sunelwala, and Amani Ahmed. Each of these writers have been chosen for their ability to bring unique and compelling voices to the newsletter. For this first issue, we wanted to highlight their personalities by sharing summer reflections, more specifically, exploring how their summers shaped their perspectives on health, wellness, and personal growth.
We warmly encourage all AMWA UTD members to submit their own pieces for potential inclusion in the newsletter. Whether it’s an article, reflection, or creative piece, your voice matters, and we would be proud to feature it. Please feel free to email me at gauri.guruprasad@utdallas.edu with your ideas, submissions, and/or answers to our monthly crossword puzzles!
I hope you enjoy getting to know our writers and their unique perspectives, and that this newsletter inspires you to embrace your own strength, curiosity, and potential for greatness this year, all while giving yourselves the rest and relaxation you all so strongly deserve.
Happy reading,
Gauri ❤︎
A Summer of Growth
By: Sahaana Anand
Hi everyone! It is quite hard to think that the fall semester has already started, given that for me personally, this summer has gone by in the blink of an eye. Usually, I am the type of person who is able to somehow reflect and realize how much time has passed and feel it, but this time around, I truly feel like the summer went too quickly for my liking. Summers are interesting and odd like that - it is supposed to be “free time” for students to recoup and rest, but ever since becoming an adult, it has felt like a competition to see who will be more productive and work harder in this supposed “free time” instead. This is not a criticism in any sense, don’t get me wrong, because I have also been studying and preparing for what the next few years may look like, as I enter my senior year of college this semester! I think that is why it has been so fast - because I have had so much work to do and kept myself busy, it barely felt like a break! I am planning on pursuing medical school, and now that college is almost over, it is all getting a bit too real. The highlights of my summer though- going on a trip with my closest friends to Seattle. This was the first time I flew by myself, and it felt amazing. As someone who loves her independence and her friends equally, the trip was a great learning experience and I had a blast. I am also originally from the West Coast, and would love to possibly settle there one day. In that trip, we explored every tourist spot possible, while also exploring nature through hikes in Mt. Rainier and visiting wondrous waterfalls. That dream-like vacation felt like it came to an abrupt stop, as I returned home to Dallas and started my study schedule. Waking up everyday, I tried to take the day one at a time, while also keeping my long-term goals in mind to motivate me. As I enter my last year at UTD, I truly can feel the weight of how much time has passed. Now, while there is still a long way to go, I feel grateful for all the growth I have gone through. This summer made me reflect on that aspect a lot - the passage of time and growth. I have had some really tough times, some good times, and a lot of in-between. As the summer comes to an end, I hope everyone has a great start to the school year, and I wish us all the best!
Batter Up: A Summer of Discovery
By: Sasha Burford
I’ve never been one for baseball. In fact, I’d go as far to say that I was a bit of a self-proclaimed hater of the sport. It’s slow paced, not terribly athletic (to me), and can last hours at a time. Throw, swing, miss. Throw, swing, miss. Maybe throw, swing, and hit every once and a while. Basketball, however, was always much more my speed. The gravity defying athleticism leaves me stunned. The quick back and forth nature always keeps me entertained. When it comes down to those few seconds left on the shot clock, the energy feels like electricity running through my veins. I’ve been trash-talking baseball for years, even with my hometown of Houston winning the World Series multiple times. So, when the prospect of attending an Astros game came onto my radar, I was a bit hesitant.
I’m not afraid to go out of my comfort zone, but for some reason, the impending baseball game was nagging at me. Granted, I’d heard that going to a game in person was vastly different from watching a game on television, but I was still a bit resistant. Why? Why was this still bothering me? After all, it’s just a game.
I began to probe my internal discomfort surrounding the upcoming game. Was it the fact that the game could run a long time? No, I’d done more difficult things for longer amounts of time. Was it that I wouldn’t enjoy it? No, I’ve been able to suck it up and trudge through unpleasant experiences before. I challenged myself to go deeper, under the surface level, to understand the root of my uneasiness. And it dawned on me softly; I realized it had nothing to do with the game, and everything to do with me.
I had been so stuck in my own thinking and experience that I couldn’t comprehend the idea of having a good time at a baseball game. I was holding onto this idea of what I thought it would be like. Now, with the prospect of the game approaching, my psyche was having to reconcile with the fact that I could’ve been mistaken. I had been closed off to this experience for so long that I had trouble rationalizing my desire to go. Because I did, in fact, want to go. There was a small part of me that if I listened close enough, was telling me to open my mind and my heart to new experiences. My plus one for the night was someone I enjoyed spending time with, so there was no doubt in that regard. The only thing I had to lose was my pride…about an idea…of a thing…that I had never done.
It sounds so absurd now, writing about my internal battle between my ego versus a baseball game. But to be completely honest, it changed me. By letting my pride take the fall, I was opened to a whole new world. I remember filtering in with the crowd, the hum of excitement as people made their way to the stands, the smell of pretzels and popcorn dancing through my nose. I remember feeling butterflies and wonder in my stomach as I took in my surroundings. And while the Astros lost the game, I had the most amazing night!
My parting words to you, reader, are to go to your baseball game. Push yourself to try new things, whether that be a hobby, an event, traveling, or meeting new people. That thing you’ve been scared to do or maybe that thing you swore you’d never do, try it. We’re at the starting line of what promises to be a busy school year, especially as pre-med students. It’s easy to get bogged down with routine and busy schedules that don’t allow for personal exploration. Feelings of anxiety or insecurity may cause you to stay closed off from new possibilities. But don’t let your fear or your pride rob you from living a richer life. You may just find out that you’re a baseball fan.
A Summer of Rest
By: Abhi Saravanan
After a long three months of sunshine and high temperatures, the school year is finally in full swing, and we’re all ready to get back into routine and start our classes. We’re starting yet another semester of making it across campus for our Organic Chemistry lecture with our peers, attending a SUAAB event in the evening, and working through our copious amounts of assignments that have already started to pile up.
Slowly but surely, as the Fall 2025 semester continues to progress, the weather will get colder, the days will get shorter, and we’ll get caught up in the overwhelming amount of tasks that we’ll be given. Once the school year kicks into full gear, we’ll be so busy always doing something, no matter how important or unimportant it seems, that we’ll miss taking the time to stop, breathe, and enjoy ourselves as we were able to during the summer time.
As a sophomore, when I think about my freshman year, the main word that comes to mind is “adjustment”. It was my first time being left with my own devices in terms of how to go about my deadlines, and while I found it convenient to be able to do my work at my own pace, it would often get stressful and I found it challenging to have to motivate myself to get something done. But at the same time, I knew that motivation would have to come through in order for me to climb that mountain of tasks waiting for me. It felt like I didn’t have a second to get some rest and catch a break, even when our holidays throughout the semester came along.
However, once summer was here, and I didn’t have anything more to tackle for the semester, I found myself having so much more time on my hands and being able to put my focus towards a goal, school-related or otherwise, at my own pace. Spending time with my family, going out with my friends from home, and even just sleeping in a little longer were among the many things that brought me joy throughout my summertime leading up to my sophomore year. The parts of myself that had suffered from constantly being on the edge of burnout were being healed as I took more time for myself. While that feeling of guilt that came with not doing something on my to-do list also resided, I had to remind myself that what I’m doing right now is what I should have been doing throughout the semester: giving myself a break.
As the semester progresses, my main reminder for everyone is that it can be easy to think that you constantly need to be working throughout the semester. Sometimes with the overwhelming amount of tasks you have, it will feel like that’s what you must do in order to catch up with everyone and everything around you. But you can’t always run at high speed if it means that you might burn yourself out in the long run. This is my reminder to take time for yourself, just as you did during your summer. Focus on your hobbies and what makes you happy as you move forward. You don’t need to wait for a long break or even the weekend; finding a small thing to bring you joy everyday will still give you peace of mind. Taking breaks throughout the semester will keep you from exhausting yourself, so that when it matters, you’ll be able to put your best foot forward. Being busy is an amazing thing, and pushing towards your goals will always leave you with the satisfaction that you’re actively working on making a difference. But it also matters to nurture the person who is meant to accomplish those goals and give them a recess to heal themselves so that they’re able to achieve amazing things.
You don’t have to spend your entire semester wishing it were summer instead, as long as you can remind yourself of being able to take a break just like you did during it.
A Summer in Finland
By: Samhitha Palla
My summer was filled with a chaotic balance of stress and side quests. One side quest that I'm especially proud of is my study abroad adventure in Finland. While studying abroad in Finland, I was expecting to learn more about the history, culture, and if I'm lucky—pick up a few Finnish phrases. What I didn't expect was to learn how the country's lifestyle would change the way I thought about health.
My days in Jyväskylä and Helsinki always began with a walk. Whether it was to catch the tram, get groceries at the neighborhood market, or attending class at the local university, walking is the easiest way to get around. By the end of the day, I easily passed 20,000 steps, making everyday a leg day. I was surprised by how different it felt compared to Texas, where driving is a necessity and exercise is a separate scheduled task.
Decades of public health research supports what I experienced first hand: walkable cities reduce the risk of obesity and improve one's quality of life by making walking an unavoidable part of daily life. Unlike exercise routines people struggle to maintain, walkable areas and active transport make physical activity a part of everyday life. Maintaining an active lifestyle was not something to be planned in Finland as simply walking everywhere keeps one healthy.
Furthermore, the mental health benefits are an added bonus. Finnish cities maintain a balanced infrastructure of lush parks and forests emerging in the middle of the hyperurban town — a stark contrast from the concrete jungle most of us grew up in. During weekends, locals would visit nearby saunas or spend a day at one of the thousands of lakes in the country. Their way of life supported the notion that time in nature lowers stress and improves mood and focus. During my time in Helsinki, I had the opportunity to visit one of the tourist friendly saunas in which attendees can enjoy the different types of saunas and swim in the Baltic Sea to cool off. Even spending two hours there helped me feel relaxed and energetic for the late night adventures.
Food and nutrition in Finland provided another health lesson. Local market stalls were lined with fresh, locally produced fruits and vegetables, whole grains like rye, and fresh fish. Berries—blueberries, lingonberries, and cloudberries—were everywhere. Meals were simple but nutritious, a world away from the over-processed, fast food that are common in the United States. The Nordic diet, with its emphasis on whole foods, has been linked to reduced inflammation and better cardiovascular health. For me, I didn’t have to plan where to find nutritious foods when everything is locally sourced and made without preservatives. Even their chocolates are made with fresh milk and seasonal fruits and ingredients.
Living in Finland reminded me that health doesn’t begin in hospitals or clinics—it begins in our environments. 42% of the adults in the United States are obese and that number keeps increasing. While physicians strongly encourage individuals to eat healthier and remain active throughout the day, we have fewer opportunities to maintain that consistency. As pre-health students, we often focus on classes, shadowing, or grad school tests. But this experience taught me that medicine extends far beyond the exam room. If we want to truly improve health outcomes, we must also advocate for walkable neighborhoods, access to nutritious foods, and public spaces that support mental wellness.
Finland showed me that health can be built into daily life, so seamlessly that you hardly notice it until you return home and realize what’s missing. As future physicians, we can strive not only to treat disease, but also to develop the environments that make maintaining health an easy choice.
A Summer of Relaxation
By: Sarah Sunelwala
By May of this past semester, I started feeling really burnt-out. Between classes, work, and volunteering, I always felt like I was rushing from one thing to the next, and I felt like I didn’t have a lot of time to do things for myself. So, going into summer, I made it a goal to do more relaxing activities for myself: things that actually helped me unwind instead of mindlessly doomscrolling on Instagram.
One of the things that helped me unwind was picking up reading again. I realized that I hadn’t sat down with a good book in a long time, and I’d forgotten how relaxing and fun it could be. I tried to spend at least thirty minutes a day reading, sometimes just a few pages before bed, or an audiobook in the car, or in the afternoon with a cup of coffee. Reading gave me a chance to step out of my own world and into another one, and it reminded me how important it is to slow down and enjoy the things around me. One of my favorite books of the summer was The Vegetarian by Han Kang. This was probably one of the most disturbing books I have ever read, but in a really good way. I had to read it twice because I was so confused the first time around, but it really makes you stop and think about power, control, and what it means to have autonomy over your own body. This book reminded me how powerful even small, quiet acts of autonomy can be and how important it is to appreciate those moments.
I also decided to finally try something I had been putting off for a while (as all great procrastinators do), which was crocheting. There were definitely moments where I picked up my crochet hook, opened a YouTube tutorial, and then immediately gave up because it felt too frustrating. I realize that a lot of my frustration must have been from how my brain is so addicted to the quick dopamine hits I get from scrolling on my phone that sitting with something like crocheting that requires time and patience felt almost impossible at first. With crocheting, there’s no instant gratification, you don’t get to see a finished product right away and that idea forced my brain to slow down and be okay with doing the stitches one at a time instead of expecting instant results or progress. I definitely unraveled more projects than I finished, but once I started making progress, it was surprisingly rewarding. Crocheting challenged me in a way I hadn’t expected, but it also became one of the most relaxing parts of my summer. Once I finally got enough basic patterns down that I didn’t need to reference a YouTube video every few minutes, I started rewatching Gilmore Girls (a comfort series of mine) and also got into Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which was just such a fun series to watch. Being able to watch a show in the background while I stitched made the whole process feel just a little more relaxing.
These hobbies made my summer feel a lot more balanced, reading gave me some much needed mental rest, and crocheting gave me a creative way to de-stress. As the school year starts, I’m hoping to continue and hang-on to these hobbies even if it’s just a few chapters in between classes, or a few stitches between assignments, I want to keep making space for the little things that keep me going.
Alone, Not Lonely: A Summer of Self-Reliance
By: Amani Ahmed
Summer started off quite busy. Travel plans, reunions, weddings, get-togethers, one after the next. I found myself surrounded by cousins, aunts and uncles, relatives I didn’t even know I had. Every day was something new; there was always a new place to be and someone new to meet. When the days had reached a crescendo, I found myself longing for some time to myself where I could just be at home with no other place to be or thing to do. That, however, quickly changed when I actually found myself at that point. Just as things had finally started to calm down, I found myself restless again. I needed something to do to keep the momentum going.
I turned to my friends. Our group chats had been filled with summer plans, yet these plans seemed less likely to happen as summer progressed. Our schedules became more misaligned with vacations thrown in the mix. While some were off visiting family, others were working or taking summer classes. I had so many things I wanted to do, but I was afraid of doing it alone.
So, I did it anyway.
I explored new cafes, searching for the best iced coffees and matchas in town. I’ve traveled to Thailand through the many plates of Pad Kee Mao and glasses of Thai tea I’ve had at restaurants. I went on early morning drives to no place in particular, but to catch a sight of the vivid colors that streaked the sky. I welcomed the warmth of sunlight on my face as I took evening strolls and read murder mysteries out on lush grass. I rediscovered my hobbies and finally finished that crochet cardigan that I had been putting off for months. I fell in love with baking again and perfected recipes for peach turnovers and banana pudding. I picked up a paintbrush once more as I used steady strokes of black paint to form Arabic calligraphy on canvas.
And I did it all alone.
Sure, I felt scared, worried, even about what others would think or say, seeing me do all these things by myself. It definitely became easier once I realized that no one actually cares. I’ve come to enjoy spending time with myself and being surrounded with my own thoughts. It's freeing in a way to be able to enjoy these small things in life without someone else having to be there with you by your side. It’s okay to do things for yourself, to embrace having solo adventures. It may seem scary to do things alone, but what’s even scarier is not doing it at all.
As the remnants of summer fade away, I hope to prioritize my mental wellbeing as the new school year begins. I still look forward to making new memories with loved ones and being able to meet up with friends. However, now I also find comfort in knowing that I am able to enjoy simply being with myself. I hope to be able to turn to my hobbies after a long day at school, whether that’s picking back up at crocheting or baking a tasty fall treat. I will take the time to become more in touch with myself and to savor the sweetness of solitude. After all, to be independent is to be wholly free.
September Crossword Puzzle
Across
3. What hobby did Sarah pick up this summer?
4. Where did Samhitha study abroad?
5. What cuisine did Amani enjoy the most?
7. What was Abhi’s summer focused on?
Down
1. What was the theme of Harriet Tubman’s quote in this issue?
2. What city did Sahaana travel to this summer?
6. What team did Sasha see live for the first time?
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