While an extended spring break would usually sound like any college student’s dream, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed perspectives on many things.

Instead of a chance to vacation and spend time with others, most students were forced to stay inside for the entire two weeks of break.

Whether they had big plans or not, the crisis has created a stressful situation for Eastern students as they dealt with social distancing, hours cut from work and shortages of food and other necessities in stores.

Skylar Redmond, a junior human geography major, said she was planning on relaxing during break, but she ended up having issues because of the shortages in stores.

“Because everything is closed down and delivery is kind of expensive, I would have to try to cook,” Redmond said. “I would go to Walmart for food, and there wouldn’t be any.”

On the other hand, some people were more able to get out of the house and do things in public because they counted as essential workers or because their activities were allowed.

Sam Hennegan, a sophomore English and philosophy major, was able to do some activities around her home town.

“I visited my grandma and helped with household chores, and I did Doordash a little bit to make some extra money,” Hennegan said.

The “stay at home” order did not just cause issues socially, though. With entire families stuck in the house at all hours of the day, tensions could be higher and create more arguments.

In Hennegan’s case, her family had to sanitize their household even more than usual.

“My dad has cancer, so that affected how much we were cleaning and where I was going, and I had to be more aware about things,” Hennegan said. “It created a lot of tension in my house because my parents didn’t think I was taking it seriously.”

Some students had to scramble to find somewhere to stay for the extended break to avoid going home to bad situations, if they were even welcome at home in the first place.

Now that classes have resumed, Eastern is allowing students with special circumstances to remain on campus.

The only dining hall available is Taylor Dining Center, with special take-out procedures, and most buildings are closed, but these students do have somewhere to stay at least through the rest of the semester.

Luke Taylor can be reached at 581-2812 or egtaylor@eiu.edu.