Reflections on restrictions

Brigitte Ortiz | THE RIDER

It has been a year since the United States experienced the first lockdown since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. Students had to put a hold on their lives and were affected mentally, financially and education wise.

Daniela Ramirez, a graduate student in educational leadership and Campus Activities Board employee, said they had planned a trip to Disney World in Florida last year and the day before they departed, COVID-19 was becoming more serious. 

“Our trip, which was one of the events that a lot of students had purchased a ticket for, was on the line whether it was going to be canceled or not,” Ramirez said. “We weren’t certain, and they were like, ‘We can’t tell you until you guys leave.’ So, the time comes. We leave that evening, then as we’re coming back a week after, on March 12, I remember vividly, as part of the staff for the department that created the trip for students, we knew all the insights coming back and us not knowing what was happening. We didn’t know if the state of Texas was going to allow us to come in.”

She said all the students on the trip had to get screened for symptoms on the Edinburg campus. 

“And when I arrived to campus, because I do live on campus at the Casa Bella facilities in Brownsville, and coming in here they’re, like, ‘No, you can’t access the facility until you get tested,’” Ramirez said. “And I’m, like, ‘I just got [screened] at the Edinburg campus. I don’t know what’s happening. Can I not come in?’ Eventually, I was [allowed in].” 

She said the hardest thing was not being able to go to her home country of Mexico. 

“I was a student that lives on campus with no reliable transportation and the city coming into chaos,” Ramirez said. “There was nothing in the stores, and I couldn’t order, you know, food through the different apps and online. It was very hard for me. I relied a lot on the food pantry and the overall service that UTRGV had to provide, ’specially since I lived on campus. I’m really glad and, you know, happy and thankful for UTRGV.” 

She said at first, she did not want to acknowledge that it felt different. 

“I thought I was doing OK,” Ramirez said. “The uncertainty of what was happening. … Will I have food the next day? Will I be able to go out? Different things. … Is there going to be electricity the next day for me to do homework? Me starting to get anxious about things that weren’t really issues but, in my mind, I was creating them, if that makes sense.”

Asked what good she got out of being in a pandemic, she replied that it was to continue learning, working from home, setting realistic short- and long-term goals and studying to prepare for her exams to be a certified graduate. 

Nursing junior Damaris Guevara said, at the beginning of the pandemic, she did not mind because she had a full load of classes that kept her busy. 

“We had a small cohort of students and so, we’re, like, pretty close,” Guevara said. “And so, in the beginning of our program, we made this group chat and, I guess, over the years we became really close. So, the beginning of quarantine was super, super easy for me, ’cause we all saw each other every day on Zoom. We all talked to each other every night, like, after class. We helped each other study. It was fairly easy. 

“I guess the only thing that was kind of difficult was we had our, like, daily routine meeting at Starbucks after class. That [was where we would] study up until midnight, but that was kind of hard to do because Starbucks wasn’t open.”

 She said she started missing her social life, and, in group chats, not everybody is as social as she is, and not everybody wants to make friends. 

“I’m a super, super social person and, I guess, now, right now, in this moment, it’s affected me a lot because I miss going out,” Guevara said. “I’m used to staying out of my house until, like, midnight, two in the morning. I don’t come back until two in the morning. And I miss going out. I miss socializing. I miss my friends, and it’s been pretty hard recently.” 

She works as a home health nurse, so she goes from being stuck at her house to another house. 

“I’m so sick of that,” Guevara said. “I want to go to the zoo. I want to go to an aquarium. I want to go out with my friends. I feel like I’m stuck. The only thing that I do sometimes, it will be late at night … I’ll just go to the beach and be by myself. I don’t know. It’s something different than just being stuck at home.” 

She said something good she discovered during quarantine was K-pop. 

“I ended up finding a group on my own; they’re called Stray Kids,” Guevara said. “They have kept me sort of sane, and there’s one member that goes live every weekend, and he’ll play music for everyone to listen to and it’s just conversations and somebody would ask a question about advice or whatever, and he’ll give you advice. So, it’s like a weekend therapy session. I always look forward to that every weekend. I think that’s a good thing.”