lost files after Big Sur upgrade

I use Microsoft Word for school. Everything I work on I save to documents on my Mac. After the Big Sur update all of the documents in my document folder are now gone. When I open Word, I can see them all in my recents, but I am unable to open them - it says that the file is deleted or I don't have access to them. Underneath each file says:

Macintosh HD >> User >> haleysotiros >> Documents

Alas, they are nowhere to be found. I have tried:

• Unticking the Finder thing in my iCloud
• Checking my iCloud (empty)
• Going through my OneDrive to see if it was there
• Looking in the finder for .docx
• Doing the command + shift to unhide documents
• Looking in the finder with this guy "~" (not sure what it did, but someone recommended that)
• Checking restrictions for Word - there are none
• Right clicking on the document in recent - nothing

I did not have the time tracker or whatever the back up was called because I didn't know about it. Anyways, if there is a patron saint for finding mysteriously disappeared documents, please point me in the right direction.