I am a PhD student, researching genomics and bioinformatics to build models that help rare disease patients obtain their diagnosis. I was born in Pakistan, moved to the United States at an early age, and was raised on the east coast. I am completing graduate school on the west coast and I miss the food back home dearly. In my free time I like to go to new restaurants, catch baseball games, cook up new recipes, and of course write poems. Currently I am learning spanish. Es natural eventualmente (I will update this as I progress haha).

I got into poetry around high school when I was submitting college applications. The time was extremely stressful and I didn’t want to bother anyone with my worried thoughts so I put them down into poems instead. After that, each interesting moment or new milestone became a catalyst for another poem. The TV shows or animes I watched, seeing my siblings grow up, eating amazing food, going from coast to coast, everything gave me some sort of inspiration to write more. I also suck at creative writing so writing poems has become a good way for me to gain the skills I desperately need.