ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — As if the senior year of high school wasn’t strange enough for the class of 2020, now many of them are heading off to college amidst a pandemic.
"We moved Kyler into Valdosta State University on Tuesday," Renee Unsworth of St. Augustine said it was a big day to take her oldest daughter to college.
Going off to college is a big deal for both parents and students. Stacking COVID-19 on top of it changes things. Logistics is one of them.
Speaking about moving her daughter into her dorm room, Unsworth said, "We had one hour to move everything in. They only allowed two people per student. Of course, you have to wear masks, go in the front door, go to the dorm room, and go out the back door. Then, you go back to the car, and get more belongings, and start over. It was a process. But it worked really well!"
"We’re just moving her right on into her room," Rebecca Ferris of St. Augustine spoke to First Coast News while moving her daughter into a dorm room at St. Andrews University.
"She’ll go through some COVID testing at the school before she starts volleyball practice," Ferris said.
Different colleges have different precautions in place regarding the pandemic.
Some have only one student per dorm room, but Ferris’ daughter will have a roommate.
Ferris thinks her daughter will be okay, but "it’s always scary to have somebody you don’t know and you don’t know their habits and their traveling. Hopefully, the college has done a good job of screening that."
Ferris' daughter is not worried about being close to others during a pandemic, saying, "Oh, it doesn’t bother me."
Some schools require quarantining once on campus. Some limit the number of visitors per student on campus.
Unsworth said, "I feel good actually. It is a little scary but it’s good. She’s moving forward."
Beyond COVID-19, these moms are both dealing with seeing their little girls grow up so fast.
"I’m dreading the time we have to leave her and drive away," Ferris said from the dorm room.
Unsworth said, "It happened in a blink of an eye. She was little and now she’s 18 and moving out."
Out into a world wrestling with a pandemic.