Newspapers / Elon University Student Newspaper / Sept. 19, 2018, edition 1 / Page 3
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NEWS Bim SEPTfiyiESER 19,2018 ANOTHER STORM A Wilmington resident adjusts to campus life as the condition other home remains unknown Emmanuel Morgan (xeculive Director i @_EmmanuelMorgan Lilly Santiago’s two most valuable possessions are her journal and her talian music box. Ihe journal is with ler — it sits on her nightstand next o her twin-sized bed at Elon Uni versity. But she doesn’t know about her Qusic box. She left it at her house uring freshman move-in day near- ! a month ago. And this week, her ouse may have been the worst place D keep anything. For most of her life, Santiago has ved in Wilmington, North Caro- na, the town battered by the full /rath of Hurricane Florence. Now a ■opical depression, Florence killed t least 32 people-in the Carolinas. he storm dumped more than 30 iches of rain, flooding Wilmington ighways so severely that the city is ow essentially cut off from the rest f the state. Santiago says she’ll be at peace if le never sees the music box again, ’s just a material possession com- ared to the lives lost and the de- truction her city endured the past ew days. Ji She’s also been through worse. Her journey to Elon was a storm ti itself, and the effect Florence left so j;arly in her college career isn’t com- [•^arable to the adversity she’s already l-aced. Now, she’s using the hurricane >s another way to test herself. “It’s kind of ingrained in me to ■ jst pick up, move on and do some- bing better,” Santiago said. “The Kings that make me the most upset re things that I have no control over bat are on a world scale. But when I ame to terms with the fact that there re terrible things happening all the ime, things that happen to me don’t eem that bad because I’m like, T’U ;et over it.”’ Santiago, 17, wrote in her orange 3urnal nearly every night from econd to fourth grade. One of her avorite entries is from Christmas we in 2007, when she addressed a Dve letter to her mother and grand- nother in pink ink. Santiago grew up n a religious household. Her mother 5 Jewish, and her father is Catho- ic, but that did not guarantee her a table childhood. Santiago’s parents livorced when she was 4 years old. ier mother, Joyce, raised her alone nd often struggled with money as a ingle mother. “It was hard,” Joyce said. “It was lard because you have to balance rork, the financial strains and keep- ag your child protected at the same ime.” Those trials forced the Santiagos 3 move houses four times. Addi- ionally, Wilmington’s population is inly 6 percent Hispanic, according PHOTOS BY ANTON L. DELGADO I STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Above: Santiago holds her diary that she has had since her childhood. The diary is one of her prized possessions, many of which are still in her home in Wilmington. The condition of which remains unknown, Sunday Sept. 16. Bottom: Santiago stands outside of Virginia Residence Hall, where she braved Florence at Elon, Sunday, Sept. 16. to Census data, so Lilly, who identi fies as Puerto Rican, said she wres tled with finding her identity. To cope, she constandy read, hoping to pave her own narrative. “It never felt like I was living my life,” Lilly said. “I felt like I was look ing at my life. I think part of that was that I didn’t have control. I was a kid, so if you don’t have control over things, you kind of detach - or at least that’s my reaction.” Throughout middle school and high school, she found her groove. She discovered her creative outlet through music and theater at John T. Hoggard High School. She ingrained herself in the Jewish community. But, Lilly said the most important thing was being around people and having deep, vulnerable conversations. “She was always ahead of her time mentally, I thought, and she had to grow into that as she got older,” Joyce said. “She appreciates what she has and the people in her life very deep ly. She doesn’t take that for granted.” During the college search, Lilly initially considered only attending a public, in-state school. But she dis covered Elon’s Odyssey Program, the university’s most selective and lucra tive scholarship. One single scholar ship costs $500,000 to endow, and that doesn’t even include additional grants. The application calls for high school seniors to be first-genera tion college students and who have experienced some sort of hardships in their lives. Lilly applied and was selected from over 500 applicants to become one of 38 Odyssey Scholars in the class of 2022. “I was really taken back because it was really cool,” Joyce said. “It was such a wonderful opportunity, con sidering our situation. She worked so hard and had so many challenges.” But more challenges were quickly approaching. As soon as Jon Dooley, vice pres ident for Student Life, sent the email. II IT NEVER EEETEIKEIWAS EIVINGMYEIEE.IEEET EIKEIWASEOOKINGAT MYLIEE.ITHINKPARTOE THATWASTHATIDIDNT HAVE CONTROL LILLY SANTIAGO FRESHMAN Lilly said her decision was already made. The campus-wide note on Sept. 11 “strongly encouraged” students to leave, a safety precaution as Florence, then a Category 4 hurricane, bar reled toward Elon. Forecasts called for 7 to 10 inches of rain, causing heavy concerns for power outages. Determined to keep its students safe. the university closed all operations Sept. 13-14. With Wilmington directly in the storm’s path, Lilly’s main concern was her parents. Soon, she learned Joyce evacuated to Raleigh while her father fled to Tampa. Lilly said leav ing Elon was never really in question. “I kind of felt like it was a test of courage,” Lilly said. “I felt like I’m at Elon now; I’m at a point where you can’t avoid handling big things in your life forever. Whether it’s a storm or it’s something else, this is a new stage, so I have to handle what comes to me. I felt excited to test myselT’ Other students and their families thought differently, and thousands of them left campus. With their home in the danger zone, Lilly and Joyce knew it’d be much safer for her to stay. But seeing so many students with the ability to leave further em phasized her socioeconomic status. “A lot of kids here have extra money they can spend, and they can go off to California on a whim” Lilly said. “It’s like, ‘Oh, you know, I don’t have that type of money laying around.’ But I was like, ‘OK, this is what I’m dealt with,’ but I wasn’t par ticularly upset about it. It gave me an opportunity to get closer to the peo ple on my residence hall floor.” Lilly said she used the time off during the storm to study. But her mind also drifted back home and her childhood. Lilly said she’d be OK if she lost her music box because she’s lost it before. When Lilly was younger, her house was robbed, and her box was among the valuables taken. Her father promised to buy her another one, which he did. This time, though, the outcome is uncertain. Elon was spared, seeing relatively small rain as the storm shifted paths, but Wilmington suffered. As of Tues day, neither Joyce nor Lilly knows when they plan to return home and see Florence’s toll. Downed power lines and flooded roads make it dif ficult to travel there or contact loved ones. Their house could still be stand ing, or Florence could have de stroyed it and swept the music box into the murky waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Lilly is prepared for either outcome — she was prepared even before the storm. Joyce has been trying to sell their Wilmington home and move to Ra leigh for months. Her father, a ma rine merchant, travels frequently, sometimes being gone for months at a time. Elon is the most stable home she’s had in years. While Wilmington will always be a part of her, she’s not afraid to let it go. “When I left for college, they also told me to take everything I want be cause I may not be coming back,” Lil ly said. “I just had to prepare myself. ‘You’re not going back to Wilming ton the same way. It’s never going to be the place that you grew up.’” “I detached myself earlier, and that’s not something that everyone did.” University-wide, the hurricane presented a distraction, especially to freshman. Because of Florence, Dooley said the university may have to think of new ways to cater to those students. “They’re only three weeks into their first year on campus, and this was a major disruption,” Dooley said. “We know that it is going to take a lit tle while to get back into the groove of things, and it’s going to give us a unique challenge.” Lilly says she will attack that chal lenge, which is what she’s always done. She wants to continue her campus involvement. She’s consid ering joining an a capella group and also wants to participate in open mic nights at The Oak House. Because she doesn’t have a car, Lilly says the only way she’ll return to Wilmington is by joining a charitable cause. That way, she’ll be able to lend . a hand to those who suffered more than she did. And maybe, she’ll find her music box. “I’ve always been given more privilege than some of the people that are struggling somewhere else,” Lilly said, “'^is happened to Wilm ington. It could’ve been worse. But you have to realize you have a per sonal obligation to help people.”
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