Happy 30th to the loml, father of our Benji, my best friend, my special birthday boy. I love you and I love living in a world where you exist.
Here's Emon throughout the last 4 years of our twenties ♥️
I used to think this day would never come. I left my MS program in 2021 with hopes that I wouldn't look back with regret, got a job as a biology lab technician at CI, and decided to reconstruct my life. I didn't expect that reconstruction would turn into revisiting old dreams, forming new ones, and finding a research advisor in a colleague whose belief in me helped bring me here today.
I'd like to think that the universe brought me back to CI not just to find a job during a global pandemic, but to start new and start again. With the help of Dr. Becerra and my CI colleagues, we found a way for me to re-enroll at Cal State LA AND do research at CI while still working a full time job. I swore I'd never go back to LA and I swore I wouldn't do research again, but when something is really meant for you, like reaaaally meant for you, it will always find you.
I have an abundance of gratitude for the people who've been with me through all my seasons of life and the ones I've met along the way. I've made it this far with the support of those who believed in me, and for that I thank you so much. Special shoutouts to my Emon, my Benji, my family, Dr. Becerra and our powerhouse lab, my colleagues and students at CI, Joanna, Nicole, Ugbad, Imelda, Jon, LSAMP-BD cohort 2018-2020 and the friends I made in the grad program at Cal State LA, my SK team (because karate helped me get through thesis writing), and so many others who I can write poems for in gratitude.
To the 20, 21, 22 year old versions of me: Sweet girl, we found a way. We are no longer lost, we're still here, and we did it.
Krisha Algoso, M.S.
What it means to be from the 805: If it doesn't exist, someone will create it, and community will always show up.
Thank you @rnadonga and @imrawb for bringing together photographers of all levels to display their work, including this girl with just a point and shoot. Thank you @open_door_studio_805 for hosting such a dope event and thank you @dexterscamera for printing my photos! And lastly, thank you to my loving and supportive inner circle who was crazy enough to convince me to do something like this <3
