Finding Home

An International Student’s Perspective on The Pandemic While Abroad

Words by Ellena Hyeji Joo

When I first started writing this article, I was surprised by how therapeutic it felt. Given how messy 2020 has been, I’m thankful for things that are black and white – like typing coherent sentences into a blank Google Doc. Writing gives me a respite from the incomplete and aimless thoughts swarming my mind, thoughts that are doing wonders for my mental health.

To sum things up in a single, run-on sentence, 2020 has been like a paragraph that started off intriguingly (hey, what’s COVID-19?), then snowballed alarmingly (COVID-19 declared a global pandemic!), consumed my life entirely (get on that flight immediately! Then get on that one! And another one!), and now this ferocious paragraph has taken a life of its own where what was supposed to be a single marker in the document is now a rambling paragraph in the form of a single sentence that doesn’t seem to want to end, while thoughts continue to pile on and on….

Whoo – let’s take a breath.

More in issue 21!