Going to a commuter school means constantly moving around. We often take for granted the amount of movement we constantly go through. How much of your life have you spent in a train? A car? Inside an elevator? We don’t really think too much about it. Until specific incidents occur where critical structures fall out of place, we don’t realize how valuable they are to our daily routines.

On Sept. 17, one of those incidents happened. Six main elevators responsible for carrying over 18,000 students through the heart of the Newman Vertical Campus failed. Students were escorted out of their classes, and the exodus continued out of the building. Although classes in other buildings remained scheduled, all classes in the NVC were cancelled until further notice.

I was especially caught off guard. Although I didn’t have class, I was in the middle of my morning commute, ready to work on a lot of things. The first of which was the election for Representative Senator.

My email opened up stating “Hey Everyone, I know in my previous email I said ‘if you do not receive another email from me, assume you’re good to go.’ This is, unfortunately, another email from me.” I ended up communicating to the 26 applicants about the cancellation of our Senate Meeting, and in turn, the postponement of elections.

In addition to that, I had other responsibilities piling on my plate at an alarming rate. We had to very quickly gather materials to submit to the Board of Directors meeting for Sept. 19, electronically complete appeals work, and figure out how we were going to be finalizing late club budgets. This was, of course, after communicating to the student body the classes were cancelled.

Homecoming was also a major priority. We had two events lined up for Sept. 17: one was postponed, and one was cancelled. I also had meetings with Office of Student Life, and our USS delegate: both were cancelled. I’ve definitely learned that sometimes, cancellations do not mean freedom, but more responsibility.

The sudden change in events caused a domino effect that really caused me to reflect. Ever-changing environments like Baruch remind me of some very important facts, but if I could condense it to just one, it would be this: Be like water. Adapt to whatever circumstances you’re in, but remain true to yourself.

Joshua Castillo is the executive vice president of USG. He can be reached at joshua.castillo@usgbaruch.com. His office is located at 3-276 in the Newman Vertical Campus.