Juliana Mejia
Class of 2022 | Meteorology | Hinsdale, Illinois
I’m writing to you feeling very lucky to have the opportunity to share my story as a student and experience during this trying time and grateful for the university putting forth so much effort to do the most it can for us.
I’m studying meteorology as my major and broadcast meteorology, Spanish, and mathematics as my minors and I’m from the Chicagoland area, specifically Hinsdale, Illinois.
Driving to Norman from Chicago is roughly a 12-hour long trip. Throughout the school year I typically fly home for things like Thanksgiving, winter, and spring break. When I flew home at the start of this year’s spring break, the university had just announced that classes would be transitioning online temporarily. I originally had a return flight to Norman a week later when break would have been over. Due to random circumstances that came up while I was home, I pushed my flight back a week.
Once my new flight date began to approach and I had already completed a full week of classes online, my family and I canceled my flight out of concern of traveling and no immediate need to return to Oklahoma.
Being a sophomore, I did not live in the residential towers and I chose to live off-campus in a nearby apartment complex less than two minutes down the road from the National Weather Center, where I often have class. My only real need to come back to Norman was to continue working. I work on campus as a tour guide as well as a waitress at a restaurant on Campus Corner. As the COVID-19 outbreak has progressed, I no longer have work at the restaurant and am working remotely for the OU.
Norman has truly become my home-away-from-home and, quite literally, 90% of my personal belongings now reside here in my apartment. I’m also lucky enough to have a hand-me-down car with me in Oklahoma, but it’s old and doesn’t drive well if it sits for a long time. So this, along with going a little bonkers in quarantine in a full house at home with my family, led to one final flight rebooking and now I’m back in Oklahoma.
Online classes went better than I anticipated. My professors were incredibly gracious and lenient in the process of reconstructing their courses and what they expected from us students. Though very technically the classes went smoothly via Zoom, it was simply not the same. During my time at OU so far, I’ve often found myself staying after class to ask my professors brief questions and was able to quickly swift through my written work to get any confusion clarified. Online, I didn’t have that luxury. Where there used to be office hours, there were now back and forth emails with screenshots of my homework.
Another positive note I can share is that I’m also involved with OU Nightly, Gaylord College’s student-run live news broadcast, and this program did a great job of adjusting to our new virtual setting. The foundation of OU Nightly is hands-on work and every weekday, students are in different parts of the studio doing things like working a camera, running the prompter, or presenting on screen. At this end of this semester, we were all recording and producing the newscast in our own homes, entirely online!
What I miss most about being on campus, aside from being able to see the South Oval mums fully bloomed, is seeing and spending time my people. I joined the OU Rock Climbing team this year and have met some of the most genuine people I know and practices twice a week have been the highlight of my sophomore year. Fortunately, GroupMe chats are as active as every and I’m still able to hear from everyone that make up my OU family.
My hopes are high for the school year to come. From me to you, I send the Sooner love that got us all through the end of this semester!
