FIU Student Faces More Than Expected Amid Pandemic

Muriel Almeida / Staff Writer

With the new fall academic year approaching, studying remotely can be overwhelming for some students. One FIU student in particular is facing several responsibilities she was not expecting to deal with at home.

Ever since the pandemic she had been kicked out of FIU housing, helping her ill mother recover from COVID-19, and struggled to maintain her family safe.

All while taking online courses and keeping her grades up.

“There was that constant fear that even though my mom was back home, it’s like what if she’s just dead the next morning? It was just terrible things that we had to go through and it was so hard to concentrate in my classes. . . that affected a lot of my motivation too, I felt a lot of negative energy at home,” said Cynthia Candelaria a student majoring in Music.

Candelaria comes from a Puerto Rican Guatemalan family and currently resides with five other family members in a small house with barely any personal space. While taking care of her sick mother, she was also dealing with the backlash of her close relatives.

“My house is really small and I live with five other people. My family is big and so there is not a lot of privacy and my walls are super thin,” said Candelaria.

As a student having to face these challenges during a pandemic, she resorted to the one thing that helped calmed her down, music.

“I would spend all day locked up in my room, like setting music theory, or practicing the piano and guitar, just having music as a way to get my mind off of everything was really helpful,” she said.

But taking care of her mother was not an easy task for her, especially because of how things evolved later on. 

“My entire family ended up getting the Coronavirus, except for me, but luckily they were asymptomatic. . . I was ready for it and nothing happened to me. It was really weird,” said Candelaria.

Candelaria is thankful that her family is better now and although it’s been a struggle for her to focus at home she hopes that after her summer hiatus she will be able to continue her education, tackle her final year at FIU, and graduate as a proud Panther.