Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Nicole Delphane poses for her photo as Kimball High School's student of the month earlier this academic year. Her future is bright, but it's unfolding differently than she planned due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Imagine being 17 or 18 years old and the last half of your senior year of high school is cancelled.
Although Nicole Delphane has mixed feelings about the end of her high school career, she said, "I honestly am not super bummed not having to go to school every day. Most of my classes are pretty easy and my assignments don't take long too complete."
But for Nicole, the cancellation of the SPVA and district music competition is more upsetting.
"I have prepared a very difficult piece to perform for these two competitions," she said. "And I am planning on having a senior recital, but that might be cancelled because I won't have any place to do it if the school and my church is closed off to big groups of people."
Nicole's answers are rather prophetic because she answered the questions before any positive results were reported in Kimball.
"If the coronavirus stays until this fall, this will definitely affect everyone," she said. "The world will go on, but the economy will go downhill and the population will continue to decrease."
Nicole sees how this virus might change things for her and her future plans but realizes there isn't much she can do except deal with it.
"For one, graduation in May will be cancelled," she said. "And this summer I will be able to do work and stay at home. My senior trip will be canceled. I might have to take online classes and live off campus for the college I got into this fall.
"Or maybe I might wait until next year to go to college. I was planning on doing marching band at wherever college I go, but if the virus is still around football games might be cancelled or at least closed to the public, which includes marching band."
Disappointment with the current situation is obvious because Nicole was looking forward to a trip with her mother to the Grand Canyon, but on a positive notes she said that can wait.
She also is unable to continue her private trombone lessons in Scottsbluff but then the positive comes out that she ended on a high note: "The weather has been amazing, so I have taken this social distancing time to ride my horse and do other hobbies while soaking up the sun."
Within the past week, Nicole's plans have been altered a bit. She is considering doing a virtual recital or a recording to sell.