Trips to Costco were always eventful when I was a little girl. As I walked down what seemed like a million isles, I couldn’t help but stare in amazement. The big warehouse was just like an amusement park to my 8-year-old self. My brother and I would run up and down and play all sorts of games using our imagination. As my parents shopped, we would explore the store, try all the free samples, and just enjoy life as kids. Every single time we went pretended to be different things, and I’ll never forget one certain trip.

It was Saturday morning, and I woke up to the news that my mother had some errands to run at Costco. Immediately, I bolted to my brother’s room and jumped excitedly on his bed. “GET UP WE ARE GOING TO COSTCO!” My day couldn’t have gotten any better. Little did I know, it was going to get a lot worse. As usual, my family took decades to get out of the house, but finally we ate breakfast and found our way to the car. I could barely sit still as I started to think of the objects I could play with, the TVs I could watch, and the free food I could stuff in my mouth. I looked over at my brother, to see if he was as excited as I was, but he had his head down. I imagined he was sleepy, since that boy slept like there was no tomorrow. As we pulled into the parking lot, I almost opened the car door as it was still in motion. Finally, my father turned off the ignition and we made our way towards the door. As I mentioned before, the place was massive, and every time I walked in the smell of Costco store would hit me. It was my happy place.

After the first hour of my parents walking around and looking for whatever they needed, I slipped away with my brother to have our routine adventures. I am almost certain we annoyed other customers with our yelping and horsing around, but we paid no attention to that. We went to the toy section and had our fun, and suddenly my brother tapped me on my shoulder. He whispered, “Let’s pretend to be spies.” Of course I agreed, and we abandoned our toys and ventured off into the unknown. We would hide behind the produce and make secret calls to each other. The whole point of the game was to get from point A to point B without getting caught by the enemies. In this case, the enemies were random people that would walk by. They did not know they were in our game, but all the adults played a big role in our fun. As we leaped from shopping cart to shopping cart, I found myself wishing this day to never end. We had lost our parents, so we had no idea what time it was or when we’d be leaving. I did not mind not knowing when we would leave. Out of nowhere, we turned a corner and ran smack into our parents. We were told to quit fooling around, but we obviously ignored them. My mother then exclaimed, “Kids, remember we are leaving in twenty minutes! Meet us at the cash registers. We are going to head there now because the lines are long.” My brother and I exchanged looks of sadness as we realized our adventure was coming to a close. My brother then challenged me to a race. Who was I to say no? We marked to finish point at the cash registers. He counted off, and we sprinted away. Remarkably, I was in the lead and I was about to win, when I trip. I tripped very badly. As I tumbled forward, my body fell on the floor and my head went straight into the sharp point of the bottom of a shopping cart. I blacked out.

Once I regained consciousness, I remember looking up and seeing the bright white fluorescent lights. There was a circle of heads in my span of vision, and I could simply hear worried chatter all around me. I felt the world spinning, and I realized I was in some sort of medical room. Everything went black again.

I woke up once more on a bed. My mother was crying in the corner, and there was a nurse tending me. I soon learned that the bottom of the shopping cart had dug deep into the side of my head, and I had to get stitches to close up the cut. Never in a million years would I have thought that my happy place would give me a scar to carry with me for the rest of my life.