Senior Annakate Cagle is ready to face a new scheduling system, her heaviest academic workload to date, dorm leaderhsip, a part time job, and college admissions in her 15th year as a Darlington student. 

“I mean still feel like a freshman, so, I guess that’s good. I’m relieved, but worried at the same time because I know that senior year is just really stressful,” Cagle said. 

By taking some of the hardest courses available, Cagle realizes that her senior year will be no walk in the park by any means.

“I’m taking AP Calculus AB, Statistics, AP Spanish Lit, AP English Lit, AP Psychology, and AP Government, so I’m kind of nervous that one of the classes might be way too hard or I might not have enough time to do everything on top of college stuff. Everything about senior year is going to be time consuming, especially from what the seniors said last year,” Cagle said.

On top of reaching her academic goals, Annakate plans on continuing her part time job at a local deli.

“I started working at Duffy’s Deli in Rome last summer with the intention of quitting before the school year, but made the choice to continue throughout the school year. It’s hard keeping a job and balancing schoolwork, but I keep my time well managed and scheduled so that I stay busy, but not overwhelmed,” Cagle said.

Annakate hopes to spend her senior year focused on what matters: family, friends, and her future.

“My main goals are academic, but I also plan to cherish these last moments with my friends and just try to hang out with everyone, you know, spend time with my family because it’ll be the last year,” Cagle said. 

As far as college plans, Annakate knows exactly what she wants and is driven to achieve such.

“I plan on going somewhere that’s not too far from home, just in the south basically. I’ll either stay in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, or maybe Texas. I’ll most likely go to a bigger school, like a state university. I really like UT – Austin; I could see myself building my life in Austin as a public health professional,” Cagle said. 

Senior year is the end of an era in Cagle’s book and she hopes to close this chapter of her life with resolution within her class.

“To my grade, I would just say: ‘We’ve been through a lot, good and bad, and hopefully we can come out with good memories, no regrets, and just really get along for our last year because we’ve really distanced ourselves in the past couple of years’. Hopefully we can come together and be more of a family. Maybe I’ll even become friends with some of the people I stopped being friends with for whatever reasons. Doing all of those things will help me end high school on a good note,” Cagle said.