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I will tell you a story.There was a young girl who was raised in circumstances where three meals a day was a luxury. Her family was so poor that she couldn't afford footwear or books. She would wear overly long dresses to school so her class mates wouldn't notice her bare feet.Her father had old fashioned ideas about how sons vs. daughters should be raised. Education did not figure in his priorities for his daughters. However, a sympathetic colleague of his at work would sneak his daughter paper that was used only on one side. The girl would then sew them into a notebook and use those at school. Since she couldn't afford textbooks either, she would borrow them from her classmates in return for helping them with their homework, and would copy by hand every word and every diagram from each textbook into her homemade single sided notebooks.She could have bemoaned her fate and quit school. Instead, she chose to look at it as extra practice and never complained.Invariably, she would graduate at the top of her class and eventually made it all the way to high school, fighting tooth and nail against her circumstances all the way, every single day.It was the night before finals. She was putting the finishing touches on her biology lab work journal, updating the diagrams, dotting the i's, crossing the t's - that kind of thing. It represented an entire year's worth of her work. She was so engrossed in her school work she forgot to look at the clock. It was her father's dinner time and she had not warmed his food yet. That was enough to drive him to such rage that he grabbed her journal and stuck the entire thing in the wood stove. Through blurry eyes, she watched her entire year's labor go up in flames. In order to make that journal which had to be submitted to external examiners for grading, she had specially gathered sheets of paper with pencil writing on one side, and erased every pencil mark using erasers so small they were discarded by their previous owners as unusable. She then measured and hand cut each sheet so they were all the exact same size before starting work on the journal of 100+ pages.She could have crumbled and spirit crushed beyond hope at this point. Instead, when life handed her lemons, she decided she's going to make the best damn lemonade anyone's ever tasted.She served her father dinner, and after he went to bed, she set about re-creating an entire year's worth of work overnight by the light of an oil lamp, because her father would have her hide if she wasted electricity studying. This time, she was racing against the clock and didn't have the time to identify and erase sheets with pencil marks and trim them all to precisely the same size. This cost her when her work was graded. She still ended up topping her class anyway.She graduated high school with perfect scores and the highest honors in Math, Physics and Biology and with one point less than the perfect score in Chemistry. She was under immense pressure to accept the job offer from a local bank to work as a teller, the family really needed the money. But she dreamed of going to college. She was convinced education was her one way ticket out of poverty. She had her heart set on medical school. When her father heard that, he refused to give her money to buy a stamp till the last day the application was due, and on the last day, refused her bus fare so she could drop off the application in person.She could have resigned herself to her fate and become bitter. Instead, she decided to use what resources she did have.She used her legs as her mode of transport, and walked three hours each way to the University offices to drop off her college application defying her father.She was accepted of course, and was given a cut-off date to pay the fees in order to register. Her father wasn't going to spend a penny on his daughter's education. Instead, he agreed to let her go to college on the condition that she somehow bring home the same money she would have earned had she accepted the job as a bank teller.Registration date came and went. The girl had no way to pay the fees and therefore could not register.She could have given up at this point and consoled herself that her dreams were beyond her means. Instead, she told herself that winners never quit and quitters never win, and pursued her dreams anyway.She would walk three hours every day to the Dean's office on the University campus, and wait for him outside his office from 8 AM to 5 PM every day hoping he would agree to see her and give her a chance to plead her case. On Day 5, the Dean relented and asked her to come in and tell him why she was camped outside his office all day for the past week.She accepted the invitation and told him her story. The Dean heard her out and asked her to come on Monday and begin classes. She assumed she had been awarded some sort of student loan and went home counting down hours to first day of class. The Dean had been so moved by her story that he not only wrote a personal check to the University each year to cover her tuition, he also gave her a monthly stipend equal to the pay she would have made as a teller, that she could take home to her father every month. (She only found out about this incredible act of kindness after she graduated, and went to the University office to find out what she owed and was told she owed them nothing.)Fast forward to year 2 into medical school. The girl's vision began to deteriorate. She had been planning to specialize in neurosurgery and all of a sudden, she could hardly read anything except for the largest fonts no matter how close she held the book! An eye exam revealed a rare degenerative condition that causes loss of vision. It could not be reversed, but it could be halted. At the point at which they found out and managed to stop the loss, her vision was 20/200, considered legally blind in most places. And that was the good news.This was the first ever eye test she had had in her life. Only at this point did they discover that she was practically blind in the other eye, and had been using her one good eye all along to compensate.She could have finally thrown in the towel at this point and concluded that this was just not meant to be, and blamed her luck for her misfortunes. Instead, she decided to roll with the punches.She could not possibly become a neurosurgeon with a 20/200 vision. Bummer. But who said she can't be a radiologist? Many did, but she chose to tune them out.She went on to graduate from Medical school with a specialization in Radiology. 31 years after starting her professional career, she retired at the age of 62, a world class doctor, Head of the Department of Radiology at an acclaimed hospital, internationally recognized for her contributions and pioneering work in the field. Her vision is a little worse now than when she started out, and she has since been officially diagnosed with a vicious form of Scleroderma (an auto-immune disorder), but she consults for free when family or former colleagues seek out her expertise, or on especially tricky cases where indigent patients are involved.This woman is my mother.Every single time I want to give up or quit or take the easy way out, I remember her story. I regain a sense of perspective and acknowledge how fortunate I am to have the resources I do, and the incredible story of how those resources were provided for me. I draw tremendous inspiration from her life story.She was able to turn her life around from the appalling circumstances of her childhood through having the right attitude, resilience, sheer dint of hard work and perseverance. So can you, regardless of your present circumstances. The human spirit is something incredible. Harness it to your benefit.UPDATE 1:I have received several requests to share this story outside of Quora.First, thank you for asking!I request that you please do not share/post this on the internet. People can be thoughtless with their comments, especially when veiled by the anonymity the internet grants. If they make disrespectful comments about my grandfather in those comments, my mom's (and her siblings') feelings will be very hurt. Unlike Quora where comments can be downvoted and hidden, stuff on the internet lingers forever.You can use the Quora link to directly share with whoever you want. They don't need to create a login to read if this is the only post they read. Quora allows you one free read I believe.UPDATE 2:My mom says I got some facts wrong in my narrative. I reproduce her words below:"To begin with, we were not in abject poverty in that we had enough to eat always. It's just that there was little left over after all of us were fed. The bigger problem was we were six daughters, and my father was opposed to educating girls.At the college level, the first problem was I failed the medical test because of very poor vision in my left eye and had no binocular vision at all, so there was no chance of treatment. I therefore used to sit outside the Office of the Director of Ophthalmology every day for getting a fitness certificate. The fitness certificate was a must to attend classes.I sat outside his office every day for 45 days and my persistence eventually wore him down. He declared me fit at last, though he told me very clearly that I was depriving a deserving candidate because I would never be able to graduate with my eyesight. By then I had missed 45 days of classes.I was already a National Talent Scholarship holder at that point. I had won the scholarship in a competition while a 12th grader. This was supposed to enable me pursue higher education. But this was only a certificate and I had no cash in hand. I had to enroll in college first, and then send proof of enrollment for reimbursement of fees.I went to meet the Dean to ask for fee exemption based on the talent scholarship. After 4 days he asked me to attend classes. By then I was late by sixty days to classes. However, I could not receive that scholarship because I could not prove that I had paid the fees! That's how the Dean ended up paying my fees. When I met the great man after I graduated and asked how I could possibly repay his kindness, he asked me to pay it forward to a deserving student."

Who It AffectsThis affects:all people enrolled on an F-1 visa or an M-1 visa for a post-secondary education in the US.all people applying for an F-1 visa or an M-1 visa for a post-secondary education in the US.It does not affect:People on an F-1 visa or an M-1 visa for kindergartern through twelfth grade (K-12) education.People on OPT (optional practical training) following graduation from an F-1 or M-1 visa program in receipt of an employment authorization document (EAD).People in the affected categories are students enrolled in full-time study at a US institution. This includes doctoral students, master’s students and undergraduate students.If you think you are affected by this rule, please contact your international student office immediately for guidance on its impact. This answer does not reflect legal advice or legal opinion regarding immigration ruling, nor should it be considered authoritative.How It Affects ThemPrior to COVID-19 lockdown efforts in the States, for most F-1 students, at most one of their courses could be an online or distance-learning course, which is defined by US regulations as… a course that is offered principally through the use of television, audio, or computer transmission including open broadcast, closed circuit, cable, microwave, or satellite, audio conferencing, or computer conferencing.[1][1][1][1]If the F-1 student was in a language program, none of these courses could be online.On March 9th, 2020, as most universities transitioned all courses to a fully-remote online format following COVID-19, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency relaxed this requirement. This allowed international students to remain in the US and finish their existing courses for the spring semester during a worldwide pandemic.ICE has always held that this is a temporary measure. In the July 6th press release, they formally announced a partial reversion to the status quo, stating:International students attending schools that intend to operate fully remotely (with no in-person classes offered) must return to their home countries.Prospective students will be denied visas to these institutions.Existing students at these institutions will not be permitted re-entry to the States for the fall semester.International students at schools that intend to operate in-person classes (i.e. the way things were before lockdown) will not experience anything different.International students at schools that intend to operate on a hybrid model — some courses remote, some courses in-person — are allowed to take more than one online course if they are not studying a language course.However, they cannot take just online courses. At least one course they take must be in-person. They must still take the minimum number of courses required by F-1 regulations to count as a full-time student.Students studying a language course at these institutions may not take any online courses.If, at any point in the fall semester, all courses become online, international students must leave the country.This can be the case if universities have to announce an emergency transition to remote, as occurred during March.Scope of Impact8% of US universities are planning to operate fully remotely this fall.[2]Approximately 60% are planning for in-person, 23% have announced a hybrid model, and another 8% are still deciding / prepared for different scenarios.8% fully-remote translates to approximately 86 colleges out of a tracked total of 1,075 colleges. International students from these places will be barred from the States for the fall session.The list of fully-remote colleges includes Harvard, all schools under the California State University umbrella, Swarthmore, the University of Southern California, and some of the University of California systems (notably UCLA).Approximately 872,000 currently enrolled students will be affected by this announcement (assuming 2018-2019 numbers are equivalent for 2020–2021). There is no data for how many prospective students will be affected.This is not a number for how many students will have to leave the country prior to the fall semester — this is just the total number of F-1 and M-1 students enrolled currently subject to this ruling.Assuming a judicious average of 1,000 international students at these 8% of institutions, we can say that 86,000 international students may be forced to depart the States prior to fall resumption.Important Downwind EffectsGiven the current status of the coronavirus pandemic in the US, many students may opt for a leave of absence to avoid the volatility of a possible emergency transition and a forced evacuation. This can delay their graduation.Students whose last term is the fall semester may be partly impacted as they apply for post-completion OPT.It is standard advice to not travel prior to receiving a employment authorization document (EAD) for OPT as re-entry to the States is barred without the same - should an emergency transition force relocation before the document can be received, students on OPT would not be able to re-enter the States.Per offline conversation with Brian Bi: “8 CFR 214.2(f)(11)(B) specifies the time period during which the OPT application may be filed. The USCIS form I-765 instructions say that: "Certain foreign nationals who are in the United States may file Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, to request employment authorization and an Employment Authorization Document (EAD).”This seems to cause an issue: if the student can't be in the US at all during the appropriate period, there won't be any period when they're eligible to apply. “Finally, this forces the hand of schools that are still waiting for events to unfold. It is now more likely that schools will choose to favour a hybrid option or stay in-person to avoid the impact on their international student body.Footnotes[1] Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR)[1] Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR)[1] Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR)[1] Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR)[2] Harvard is keeping classes online this fall, placing it among the 8% of US colleges planning to do so. Here's the list so far.

You have almost exactly described the dilemma my wife and I found ourselves in, and to a lesser extent, our daughter as well.It’s impossible to know how we would have turned out had we not left the US in the mid-90s, but perhaps we can extrapolate from the reverse culture shock we experienced when family issues compelled us to move anew to the US in 2016.Of course, we were not completely isolated; not only were US events just a click away on the Internet, we frequently saw video clips of US news on our local TV news, especially when such events were incomprehensible to the local culture (e.g. how can a president be impeached simply for consensual sex), traumatic (e.g. 9/11), or awe-inspiring (Obama’s rise). In addition, despite a few family members who did come visit, much of our family was unable or unwilling to make the trip, so we were frequent visitors to the US.But even still we noticed that our values which resonated so strongly with our adopted home in Western Europe were drifting increasingly further away from US values (or vice versa), to the point where we were seriously considering never leaving, until the aforementioned family issues arose.So we bit the bullet and moved anew to the US. First point where the divergence became apparent: had health insurance in the US worked like it does in any European country, we would have moved immediately in 2013 when the first family crises occurred, as any job we would have found would have provided full coverage. But after researching insurance costs, and realizing that they would dwarf even housing costs if we had to pay out of pocket, we concluded that we would have to wait until employment with insurance was secured, which took nearly 3 years to accomplish.Then began the difficult process of (re)assimilation into a culture that was no longer ours. That’s when we discovered that we were no longer familiar with the underlying assumptions underpinning all the systems that govern daily life.At first, we would preface each conversation with, “please treat us as if we were immigrants, we really don’t understand how the system works”, which would elicit either blank stares or feeble “but your English is so good” in response. And we would be left having to decipher phrases that seemed like English but held no meaning for us. For example, once we and my employer (the US subsidiary of a foreign company) finally figured out how to get us enrolled in an insurance plan, we had to navigate the insurance network (a concept that doesn’t exist elsewhere). The insurance company’s website was only partially helpful, as it listed medical professionals that accepted any of the insurance provider’s plans. So we had to ask individual offices if they accepted our plan, and their question was whether we had HMO or PPO. Now we knew what an HMO was, but had never heard of a PPO, and in either case weren’t aware what our plan was, and it didn’t help when we were chided for “not having paid attention when enrolling”.We strongly believe that we are definitely in better health now thanks to our having lived overseas than we would have been had we remained in the US over the same period. From a purely practical standpoint, when we lived overseas we never hesitated at all before seeking medical help, and we were able to concentrate solely on getting treated and not having to worry about networks or cost or HMO vs PPO.We also saw that our bodies had adjusted to the change in diet. When we lived abroad, we had easier access to healthy food at reasonable prices. We have done the best we can where we live in the US, but even still my wife gained a significant amount of weight until her body reacclimated to the higher salt, sugar, and fat content of what is offered here. She has since lost about half of that immediate gain, but we take it as a sign of what would have occurred had we never left.We also noticed a great divergence in attitudes. As alluded to above, we left early in Clinton’s first term, and watched from afar as the US plunged first into hyperpartisanism, then into paranoia after 9/11. After the shock wore off, the fear and suspicion were palpable on our subsequent visits, from the moment we landed at an airport. In fact, during the 8 years that our daughter lived in Canada, we purposely arranged our trips to fly in and out of Canadian airports and then drive across the border, to avoid US airports.While we were already curious and open-minded before leaving the US, our experience elsewhere strengthened those qualities and undoubtedly magnified the divergence with respect to increasing suspicion and isolationism in the US. We were quite accustomed to rubbing elbows on a daily basis with people from literally around the world, including from “bad” countries, and reveling in that diversity. We were accustomed to speaking multiple languages during the day and enjoying entertainment from a wide variety of sources, all with no extra effort demanded on our part.We also have been surprised (and dismayed) by the steady drift to the political right and the politicization of what seems to us to be basic human rights. We are not members of any political party, but not only does that fact seem to shock others, there are incorrect assumptions made when we discuss issues that we didn’t expect to be considered as showing support for one party or the other. Of course, having lived in a country with a rather cacophonous political process with more than a dozen political parties spanning the entire spectrum from true left-wing nutjobs to true right-wing nutjobs, we find the US system rather limited in its offering [but don’t worry, we will be voting “usefully” despite our disappointment]. And just to compare, when we lived overseas our moderate views placed us indeed in the center of the local spectrum whereas in the US we have been called all sorts of nasty names, even by friends and family members with whom we used to agree.To reiterate, it is impossible to know how we would have turned out had we remained in the US all those years, but the divergence is glaringly obvious.