Happy Monday, U-FLi friends – This week, we’re featuring Lenika Rivas (she/hers), a sophomore concentrating in Environmental Studies & Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Lenika is currently in Providence, RI. Read our interview below:

How are you doing? How have you been during this transition period?

It’s been kind of difficult going to online classes just because it’s hard to be engaged when you’re just looking at a screen. I find myself getting bored or feeling kind of drained after classes because I’m looking at a screen for so long. 

Since I’m staying in Providence, it hasn’t been a huge transition in terms of having to go home and work around my parents and my family, which is sometimes hard because it’s kind of chaotic at home. I guess one thing that has been keeping me kind of grounded and focused is that I still meet with my therapist over Zoom. That’s been nice because I’m able to still work on certain anxieties and things like that. It’s nice to be able to have my therapist. 

The hardest thing is just dealing with isolation, being in quarantine, and struggling to stay connected with friends. I’ve been trying to do study sessions over Zoom so I’m going to try to start that with some of my friends and my roommates.

What’s giving you joy at the moment?

Well since I just moved into my new dorm, I’ve been redecorating and organizing things and putting up nice wall decorations to feel like I’m doing something. Even if it’s stuff inside my home, I feel somewhat productive. I just put up these lights today so it feels nice, like I’m doing something. It’s also something good for me because then I feel more comfortable in my space. It’s been fun working on that. For people at home, if they can decorate or reorganize, it can be kind of helpful to clear your space and your mind. That has been something I’ve been enjoying the past few days. Sometimes too much because I’ll want to decorate instead of doing my work. 

Can you describe a time this past semester where you felt connected to the folks around you?

Me and my roommates have pasta nights every Thursday at Andrew’s. Every week, we’re just there. It was the last Thursday that we were going to have pasta night because that was when we got the email that everyone had to leave. I have a triple, so me and my two other roommates went to get pasta. We were just realizing that it was going to be our last pasta night for the school year. 

We ended up having a really deep conversation about our relationships with other people and our relationships with each other and feeling like we can trust each other and have each other and be there for each other. The three of us are Latinas and come from a similar background. So we were eating pasta at Andrew’s and our conversation got really deep. We went back to our room and started talking at our place. 

I remember feeling really grateful that I have them. I’m part of Machado House, so I guess it’s my community within the Machado community. I felt like we were really connecting and feeling safe, like we can trust and talk about things together. We ended up crying because our conversation was really deep. It was nice to be able to vent to each other and relate or not relate and be there for one another.