2020 Vol. 82 Issue 5 – Sep 24

WE NEED TO TOK HARD TO NET Northwestern students use TikTok, Student Government Association though they have mixed opinions members hosted a volleyball about how safe the popular video tournament Sept. 17. See photos platform really is. PAGE 3 of the event here. PAGE 7 PRSRT. STD. Permit # 5 Alva, OK 73717 Volume No. 81, Issue 3 Change Service Requested Volume No. 82, Issue 5 Northwestern Oklahoma State University, 709 Oklahoma Blvd, Alva, OK 73717 September 24, 2020 Visit us online at northwesternnews.rangerpulse.com Follow us on: CONQUERING COVID Photos by Jordan Green Above: Yosbelli Lora poses for a portrait on the Northwestern campus Sept. 17. Below: In this portrait, Lora smells a flower in a garden after being released from weeks of quarantine. Lora overcame virus thanks to friends, humor and prayer Government Association officer issues in the summer, Lora hoped By SEAN DOHERTY Student Reporter and student-athlete on Northwest- she could join track and field ern’s track and field team, Lora, practice soon. a senior psychology major from “I was dealing with the heart Yosbelli Lora never expected Ringwood, Oklahoma, arrived thing kind of going on,” Lora to catch the coronavirus. a week before the fall semester said. “I’d wake up at three or five Because of her responsibilities started. in the morning with my heart rate as a resident assistant, Student Despite battling some health See LORA, Page 2 While essential, masks make learning more difficult, faculty say that her students have their masks on prop- student who doesn’t like to talk during more detailed when she writes on the board By LOGAN MERIWETHER erly every day. She also believes masks class. in the front of the class, a process that takes Student Reporter can diminish the ability for some of her Having masks on makes a lot of her stu- up more class time, she said. students to learn. dents not want to ask questions even when Walker also drinks several cups of water Masks are essential to keep you safe Walker enjoys getting to know her stu- they don’t understand what she is teaching, every day. With her mask on, she noticed from COVID-19, officials say, but are they dents, but having masks on has made get- she said. When teaching, her voice is muf- that she was only drinking one cup per day. hindering students’ abilities to learn? ting to know them difficult, she said. She fled because of her mask, so students in the When it is hot outside, Walker said she Dr. Dena Walker, a math professor at can usually read students’ facial expres- back of the room may have difficulty hear- struggles because she has had less water. Northwestern, said she takes the safety of sions when they don’t understand some- ing what she is saying, she said. As a result, she has experienced headaches. her students seriously. Walker makes sure thing – especially when it comes to a shy Walker has to provide notes that are See MASKS, Page 3 EDITORIAL PHOTOS FEATURE Page 2 & 3 Pages 4 & 5 Pages 6 & 7 Page 9 Page 10 PAGE 2 NORTHWESTERN NEWS September 24, 2020 News LORA: ‘I think humor is kind of what got me through all of this’ Continued from Page 1 from Dean of Student Affairs Cal- above 140. It was awful. It was a leb Mosburg. sick feeling. Then when I came up “I received, like, 50 different for my RA training, I was dealing phone calls right after that,” she with that as well. And I was like, said. ‘I can’t even sit still, like I can’t get it together with my heart rate.’ ISOLATION It wasn’t necessarily anything too crazy, but it was an awful feel- Then began the process of ing. I dealt with that in June, July moving into the isolation dorm and came up into August. I lost 20 rooms on campus. But around 7 pounds. It was a rough ride.” p.m., Lora started experiencing Lora had set up an appointment shortness of breath and was taken with an electrophysiologist for by ambulance to Share Medical Aug. 25, the second Tuesday of Center. the semester. She was brought in through a “I kind of was just waiting on different door and kept in a special that EP appointment on the 25th isolation room, disconnected from of August,” she said. “I was like, the hospital’s main ventilation sys- ‘I really just hope it’s not a heart tem. condition that affects me in any “When I got there, I was trying shape, way, or form, because I re- to play it cool,” Lora said. “They ally wanted to compete this year.’” started asking me, like, a million By the end of the first week questions about my symptoms, of the semester, it seemed things and how I was feeling right now were looking up for Lora. and whatnot. I was trying to play “The Saturday after we started, it cool like I said, flecked with hu- I noticed that my heart rate was mor a lot. I think humor is kind of kind of going back to normal,” Photo by Jordan Green what got me through all of this, but Lora said. “It was in the low hun- Yosbelli Lora poses for a portrait Sept. 17 on Northwestern’s campus after being released from quarantine. deep down, I was scared out of my dreds throughout the night, and mind.” then Sunday, I noticed that my Within 20 minutes of being heart rate was in the nineties. I in the hospital, Lora got her first wasn’t waking up at four or five taste of what the next three weeks in the morning again with that 160 would hold. heart rate. I was like, ‘Well, that’s “All these other symptoms just weird.’ I felt significantly better. It kind of hit me out of nowhere,” was strange. I thought it was like, she said. “It was not only the taste, God’s work or something.” smell, and shortness of breath, but my throat. I started losing my ‘THIS IS SO WEIRD’ voice. My sinuses sort of swelled up. I could feel them, like it was Lora woke up Aug. 24 feeling like balloons in my face, like in better, she said. Her heart rate was my cheek. It was just an unpleas- good. As she prepared to leave her ant feeling out of nowhere. My room, she put on some lotion. chest and my back in one spot – “I put some lotion on, and I was especially my back – I felt like like, ‘Oh, my lotion smells really there was a knife, like someone good.’ And I reached up for my had just knifed my chest. It radi- fragrance — one of my favorites, ated through the other side of my Chanel. I reached up, and I sprayed back, and whenever I moved, it some on my shirt, and I caught a would be like a wound. My ear whiff of it, and out of nowhere, started hurting. I was literally fine, within seconds, I lost my sense of like, an hour ago. If it got this bad smell – like, couldn’t smell any- this quickly in, like, two hours, more. And I was like, ‘Well, that’s how bad how is it going to get weird. Maybe it’s my nasal spray through the next two weeks?” for my allergies that I just started.’ Lora finished up phone calls Photo provided I went in for my lotion because I Lora added a tally mark on her wall for each day she spent in quarantine. She took a test for the virus Aug. 24. to her coaches and friends in the was like, I smelled it five seconds hospital, where she stayed for two ago. I put it up to my nose, and I texture of it – like, I knew it was ing, but pacing back and forth. I “I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I nights. She was able to have a couldn’t smell it. an orange, but I couldn’t get it to- was like, ‘This cannot be happen- have asthma,” she said. “There’s Telehealth conference with her EP “And I was like, ‘This is so gether. And I was like, ‘Maybe this ing to me. Like, it’s Yosbelli. This a possibility there’s something specialist on Aug. 25, who assured weird. Like, maybe it is my allergy her that her condition would not orange is defective.’ I was kind of is not happening to me right now.’ wrong with my heart, and I have medicine.’ I reached up for some affect her recovery. She returned to in denial. I don’t think that I’m indestruc- a virus that could potentially kill rubbing alcohol on my shelf, and campus to quarantine on Aug. 26. “I was like, ‘There’s absolutely tible or anything, but it’s just like, me.’” Lora said she had been in I was like, ‘I know this is strong,’ no way. I’ve washed my hands re- it’s just me. I mean, what are the contact with her mother and five- and I was like, ‘I’m going to take a STAYING CONNECTED ligiously, I’ve worn my mask. I’ve odds?” year-old brother the previous day. smell of it or take a whiff of it, see done, like, literally everything to, Lora decided to sleep on it – or “A million thoughts went if I can smell it because I know, Lora started accepting “win- like, make sure I don’t catch the at least try.

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