7 Ole Miss Students from 7 States Offer Honesty, Optimism

Story contributed by broadcast journalism students in an advanced reporting class.

Nearly 20,000 Ole Miss students are scattered around the country and across the globe. COVID-19 put an end to many of the best parts of the spring semester in Oxford, but we spoke to seven students from seven states and asked them four questions about coping with this crisis.

What do you miss most right now about Oxford or Ole Miss?

Nearly every student we spoke to talked about missing their friends. Asia Guest is a senior majoring in integrated marketing communications who lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

“The one thing I miss is the connectivity with my friends…the feeling of being a part of the community. The Oxford and Lafayette University community is like…I just miss how everything was so connected, and I miss my friends, of course. I just miss the people.”

Others are missing more than social life.

“I miss my room, my friends and honestly going to classes in person,” said Gabrielle Gaspard lives in Phoenix, Arizona and is majoring in accounting.

What’s the best thing that’s happened to you since the pandemic changed our lives?

Mom and Dad will be glad to hear that they were right at the top of things these students were learning to appreciate more.

“The best thing that has happened to me since this, ironically, is probably being with my parents. I take them for granted a lot, we don’t hang out a lot, especially since I’m away
at college. So, having that time with family has been nice,” said Macy Holliday, who lives in Dallas, Texas.

And having a little more “me time” has been a side benefit for students like social work major Sydney Sergis, a senior from Cocoa Beach, Florida.

“The best thing… I think I just have so much time to read and do things that I always want to do or read the books I’ve always wanted to read but I never had time,” Sergis said.

What has you most worried right now?

A concern about what the fall semester will bring was universal among these students. The uncertainty is likely to last a while longer as the university has to weigh the health and safety of students, faculty and staff against the desire to get things back to normal.

Yakia Mckinnie is from Holly Springs, Mississippi, and is majoring in allied health studies.

“Since I’m a junior right now and I’ll be a senior next year, what has me the most scared is not being able to come on campus senior year and fully live out my senior year on campus and being able to experience different things and different activities. So, I think that’s what I’m most worried about right now,” Mckinnie said.

Diedric Berg is from Green Bay, Wisconsin and he’s got one more worry to add to the mix.

“Football season getting canceled, and I think if they cancel football that far in advance they will cancel school, and I just want to get life back on track and everything moving forward,” the managerial finance major said.

What keeps you optimistic about the future?

These students still do have lots of optimism, despite the challenges they’re facing daily.

“This can’t last forever so I’ve been holding on to, you know, the hope of next school year. It’s my senior year and so I’m looking forward to that even if some of the stuff is still going on, there’s so much more that I have to do at school. I get to have my senior year and that makes me really hopeful,” Holliday said.

Junior Brady Railey is an engineering major and an Ole Miss cheerleader from Newsite, Alabama. He trusts in people doing the right thing.

“I think what keeps me most optimistic is knowing that we have good first responders with this whole pandemic thing and just seeing how everyone’s reacting and how everyone’s dealing with it gives me lots of hope for the future,” Railey said.

Guest believes she has what it takes to overcome this crisis.

“I know that, regardless on what’s going to happen, I am going to cross the finish line. There are bigger things for me out there. As far as career-wise and life-wise, my greater goal will be achieved and all of this is for a reason,” she said.

Mckinnie believes that, too.

“I think what keeps me most optimistic about the future is just having faith in God, knowing that whatever happens is going to happen regardless. Whatever he decides to do would be best. It’s whatever he thinks is best for us. Just being faithful in God.”