APRIL 14 - FLOR AGUILAR (junior)

It never occurred to me that half of my junior year would take place in my basement.

When I left Eastside’s campus, I carried four binders and three textbooks that weighed me down like bricks. In no world would I have thought that in-person classes would be canceled for so long.

Let's not talk about the amount of free time I have at home -- it’s endless. Two weeks ago my dad and I went to Costco to buy snacks. We sure picked the wrong day to go! It was raining heavily, and yet you cannot imagine the humongous line that wrapped around the entire building. I overheard many people complaining about the service because they were not letting people in and customers had to wait in the cold rain.

Many people, including myself, took pictures of the scene because we had never seen Costco so packed. The madness of people swarming to grab tissue and cases of water bottles was crazy. A woman tried to pass through a line in order to get to the next aisle and another lady called her out, thinking that she was trying to cut in line. She almost started a huge argument, but then the first woman explained and fortunately, the second lady listened.

And don’t let me start about the lines to pay for your food. They were completely disorganized -- it looked like groups of people scattered everywhere. A supervisor had to signal people where the line had started or where the separate lines split because without that, it was total chaos. My father's face was in shock even though he expected this to happen. After about a 10-15 minute wait at the register, my dad finally bought our cartful of chicken, milk, eggs and fruits and vegetables.

After that trip to Costco, I don’t go with my dad anymore. Putting up with crowds of people like that is just too much.