When your world has revolved around school for as long as you can remember, it’s a strange thing to suddenly find yourself home all the time.
For Delaney Williams, an 18-year-old senior at Columbia High School, everything in her life has been leading up to college. She’d go to Florida State University and study political science, and figure out whether she really wants to go to law school or find a new path to walk.
Williams, a Lake City native, is still on track to start her college education online later this year. But it won’t be the experience she hoped would help focus her goals and branch out into adult life.
“It won’t be the same,” Williams said. “I think the most appealing thing about college is the fact that it’s definitely a step in the direction of maturity. You’re moving away from your parents and the town that you grew up in, and you just kind of get to become your own person. A little room to grow.”
Williams thinks she wants to become a prosecuting attorney, but she’s not entirely sure yet.
“My career goals change a lot,” she said. “If I don’t get to spend my first year at FSU, I won’t get the kind of direction I’m looking for to shape what I want to do with my life.”
Williams picked FSU for the thriving student life.
“I definitely pictured hanging out in the dorms with roommates, going to tailgates, basketball games, walking down the sidewalks on a warm day in August, looking around and knowing that this is going to be my home for the next four years,” she said.
College was supposed to be a big leap into the unknown, something radically different than what she’s used to.
“I was really excited just to live somewhere other than Lake City, just kind of see how it is on the other side,” she said. “That is the whole exciting thing about college — after you finish your senior year, you get to grow up and move on. And the fact that it may not be what me and my friends can do is very scary.”
Instead, her first classes at FSU will just be more of what she’s already been doing.
While CHS students were on spring break, Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered all the state’s public schools closed. The shutdown has now been extended to last till the end of the school year.
Students are learning remotely, either through Google Classroom or pen-and-paper packets. It was a rocky transition, Williams said.
“Because you kind of associate your home with not being at school, it’s hard to sit yourself down and make yourself do the work,” she said.
The social isolation hasn’t helped, Williams added.
“Definitely put me into a little bit of a depressive state, just a lack of motivation since there’s no change of scenery,” she said.
Williams wonders what kind of lingering effects the pandemic will have on moods and behavior.
“As soon as everyone is released back into society, no one is going to know how to act anymore,” she said.
Haileigh Lake, CHS senior class president, used to work a night shift as a Chick-fil-A manager. Now, she works in the daytime and does her coursework at night.
“It feels like everything has been flipped upside down,” Lake said. “It kind of threw me off, but I’m adjusting to it, I guess.”
Lake was set to attend FSU in the summer to major in elementary education. Another born-and-raised Lake City native, Lake was supposed to leave the second week of June.
“I’ve always lived at home, and I’m not very much of a traveler,” she said. “So this was going to be my first time living on my own, doing my own thing, my first real adult experience.”
Lake’s stepfather, a former Marine, got accepted into FSU as well, and they were looking forward to attending together, she said.
Virtual courses aren’t what she envisioned, but Lake said she’s trying to remain positive about her upcoming college experience.
“It’s going to be OK,” she said. “Even though these things are being taken from us, it’s going to be OK.”
College wasn’t the only thing Lake was looking forward to, though.
“There is so much stuff I had planned for these last two months,” she said. “Not only with my family, but with my classmates. These are things that I’ll never get back.”
Since the 10th grade, Lake and her friends had been talking about a trip to New York City during their senior year. They were planning to actually go through with it after graduation.
They were going to see all the sights, she said — the Statue of Liberty, Times Square, the rebuilt World Trade Center dubbed the “Freedom Tower.”
“It was supposed to start our tradition of taking one trip every year together,” Lake said.
Lake’s family was also preparing for a mountain getaway. Her parents wouldn’t tell her where they were going for vacation — it was going to be a surprise.
Then there’s prom.
“I. Was. So. Ready,” she said.
She had a $650 yellow dress just for prom, which was scheduled for April 18. She and her friends planned to go to Jacksonville for a pre-prom dinner, and were going to go back after the party to hang out on the beach.
“This was supposed to be our year,” Lake said. “This was supposed to be our year of good times, good memories.”
Lake’s father won’t get to see her walk in the graduation ceremony, either.
“I’m his youngest, so he was very excited,” she said. “He always told me how proud he was. I was excited for him to see me, because everything I do, I do it for him. I do it to make him and my family proud. So it’s kind of devastating.”
Prom and graduation will still happen eventually in some form or fashion eventually, said CHS Principal Trey Hosford.
“Our plan is to have both of them, hopefully close together,” Hosford said. “We’ll have graduation at the stadium — I feel like our seniors have earned that moment. And prom — after talking to different kids and how important it is to them — we’re going to make that happen as well. We don’t know when.”
“Once we start seeing things returning to normal, then we’ll schedule a date,” Hosford said.