Remembering the Person I Was

By Marien López-Medina

Remembering the person I was when I started at OU in fall 2019 gives me mixed feelings. Coming here after graduating from United World College was my transition to adulthood, yet I was mourning the cycles one has to close for a fresh beginning — friendships, nationalities, life decisions. I was rushing to find myself, my career and an international community to feel at home while in the U.S.

When spring 2020 started, my plan was to take control of my own life. I changed my major from IAS to journalism (my dream career since 2010), found a campus job to make money and stuck to those I truly call friends. But just when adulthood seemed possible, a pandemic was announced.

The possibility of COVID-19 becoming a global pandemic seemed too far away at first. During spring break 2020, the dining hall of Dunham College was full of afraid and anxious international students whose countries started closing their borders at the threat of a pandemic — yet the campus was already empty. On April 22, before OU shut down, I left the U.S. on the last chaotic flight to Nicaragua, knowing I was one of the lucky international students who could quarantine with her family. Others got stuck, struggling with expenses and the loneliness brought by a summer on campus.

Six months later, another Marien came back to a definitely different campus. Working at the OU Daily during the summer connected me to the different problems faced by international students at OU or in their home countries: fear of academic failure, graduation cancelation, difference of time zones, money issues, overpriced flights, travel bans, war, isolation, loss of family members and even threats to our immigration status. Just as the world was closing its borders, it seemed to us our dreams were becoming smaller, too.

Some of the biggest lessons in my life were taught by the dramatic changes in the course of a year impacted by COVID-19, and I’m sure other international students had a similar experience. I know that it doesn’t matter how many plans we have; there are so many factors that could change them easily. I know that taking a pause to analyze our feelings is allowed, and most importantly that we cannot take our loved ones for granted.

The year of the pandemic brought solidarity, warmth and support for the OU international community. Every online or in-person interaction between the students and the International Student Services office, the College of International Studies and the UWC Scholar Program office brought words of encouragement that kept us strong in the hardest times. There is where I found a family away from home.

Marien López-Medina is a sophomore from Managua, Nicaragua majoring in journalism with minors in nonprofit organizational studies and international studies.