Editor’s note: As a challenging year comes to an end, the Post-Tribune re-interviewed the people profiled last year — ranging in age from their teens to their 90s — to see how the year 2020 has impacted their lives.

In March, Ellinee Nelson, said she finally started feeling stronger a year after being diagnosed with cancer.

“I literally remember having the thought, I think March is going to be my month. I think I’m going to be back, at least more than I ever have been since treatment,” Nelson said.

In March 2019, Nelson was diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma and started chemotherapy a month later — after first freezing her eggs. She completed treatment in July 2019, and has been in remission since.

A month before her cancer diagnosis, Nelson had been accepted to the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, to work on her master’s degree in art history, with a focus on critical and curatorial studies. She postponed her graduate studies in 2019 to focus on cancer treatment and intended to return to her studies in 2020.

Then, the pandemic hit, which forced schools to shift to remote learning and shut down borders. In June, university officials announced that Nelson’s program would be remote for the fall semester and a few weeks later border restrictions for Canada were continued.

“My grad school plans have been at the front of my mind through the last couple of years, that have led to some derailed plans,” Nelson said. “With the boarder restrictions and with the programs all online, there was not a possibility of me moving there and doing it online. That was definitely a heartbreaking reality check.”

After the school announced online learning, Nelson, now 24, said she adjusted her plans: In July, she moved into an apartment in Crown Point with a friend to have a space to concentrate on remote learning during the fall semester, with the hopes of moving to Canada in January.

But, by September, the school announced further plans for remote learning and the boarder restrictions continued, Nelson said.

“That plan very quickly changed, yet again,” Nelson said.

After finishing the first semester online, Nelson said she decided to take a nine-month leave of absence from the program because it’s only a two-year program and she wants the in-person experience.

“I just don’t want to continue on holding out hope that I’ll be able to go there and be in person and for that to never happen,” Nelson said. “Even if by the fall semester I am able to be there in person and have in-person classes, I don’t want to do half of the program online.”

Meanwhile, when businesses began shutting down in March, Nelson was let go from her job working in a boutique in Chicago. She continued working through August as a studio assistant for Kaspar Art Services, but left the job to focus on school.

After deciding to take the leave of absence, Nelson said she moved to Chicago to have a better chance of finding a job and to be near museums — that way she can visit art exhibits once museums reopen.

During the fall semester, Nelson said she enjoyed the classes she took and her classmates and professors were wonderful to work with. But being able to have conversations over coffee or lunch with other students is an element of education Nelson said she missed in the fall semester.

Being an international graduate student was “particularly isolating” because her school community is so far away and she’s never met the students or teachers, Nelson said.

“It was this really weird feeling of working so hard on my computer and being in three-hour long Zoom meetings multiple times a week and then feeling excited by the types of conversations we were having, and then ending class and closing my laptop and still being in my living room,” Nelson said.

Nelson said she is still “pretty dead set” on completing her school plans and career goals. The social and racial issues that were “even more enhanced” in 2020 have inspired her to think about “the work (she) can do as an individual and the change … to advocate for.”

But, 2020 has also taught her to prepare for potential shifts in her plans.

“Don’t hold on too closely to plans that you’ve made. Everything is constantly changing,” Nelson said.