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1. At the tender young age of nine, I already had lived through my first
earthquake in Chile. I had evaded death and lived to tell its story. I had
experienced at first hand the trauma of living through one of Mother
Nature's most notorious catastrophes. The earthquake taught me that
life is unpredictable and life should be cherished intensely.
I was living with my grandmother at that point in my life. It was an
ordinary Sunday morning; I was dressing up to go to church with
grandma. My aunt Berta had called earlier that morning to see if I
wanted to attend church with her, but I wanted to spend the day with
grandma. At that moment, I had not realized the impact of that choice.
As we took the bus to the church, I remember thinking what a
picturesque and tranquil day it was, resembling the calm before the
storm. As we stepped off the bus, we immediately headed to the
entrance of the church, arriving approximately at the start of mass. We
sat near the exit of the church. The priest started his general discourse
of the day which merely lasted a few minutes before we started
sensing mild tremors. He said over his discourse, "Please do not be
startled. It is only a tremor it will soon end".
In the past I had experienced many tremors in the apartment we
lived in, but due to my lack of understanding, I took tremors as mild
disturbances and not as a prelude to disaster. Nevertheless, as soon as
he finished his statement, the tremor turned into a cataclysmic
earthquake. The earthquake feels like the ground underneath is having
convulsions, shivering up and down with vigorous strength. Reaction is
almost impossible due to shock and we could not move because it feels
like the ground underneath is coming undone. Grandma and I started
heading to the exit by holding on dearly to the church pews. As she led
me to the exit, we struggled with other people who were fighting to
escape, consumed by fear. Everyone was trying to flee through the
small exit, and no one was succeeding. I felt like we were destined to
stay inside of the church. I remember thinking, "This is it, my life is
about to end", and praying to God for salvation. In the middle of my
prayer for salvation, the earthquake stopped. We were soon pushed by
the mob of people towards the exit of the church. As we stepped out
of the church exit, we saw people on the ground who had been
subdued by others. We started helping the people around us. Ironically
the first person we saw at the exit of the church was the priest that
had, a few moments ago, said everything would be fine.
Grandma and I decided to head back to the apartment via the middle
of the streets. As we began our course through the streets, we saw
many people in the streets in shock, buildings on the ground, they were
either entirely destroyed or partially. The streets were an impression
of a war zone. As we walked, the aftershocks were continuously
haunting us. Furthermore, the streets had been torn in the middle,
opening up the earth. We felt obliged to make stops before heading to
the apartment due to the aftershocks. When we arrived on the street
of the apartment building we lived on, my aunt Berta met us in the
front and said to my grandmother, "It was a blessing in disguise she did
not attend church with me", half of the building had collapsed and she
had been lucky to escape with her life intact.
The apartment building looked as safe as the other buildings that
had toppled down, it would be a great risk to walk up the stairs to the
fourth floor. Grandma made the steadfast decision to stay on safe
ground. Although, the building had survived with no visible structural
damage. We gathered with a group of people outside, given that no
one thought it was safe to go inside any surrounding buildings or
structures in this disastrous wake. It was early in the afternoon; we
contemplated staying in my aunt's home, located only a few blocks
away. But due to the aftershocks and danger surrounding us, we
decided it would be better to stay in the streets.
My aunt at the time drove a Volkswagen rabbit, forest green. She
offered her car to us and our neighbors; we found it to be the best
shelter at the time. That night was an abomination; more aftershocks
were in store for us.
In the morning, we decided to get our personal things and some
belongings together, since we would be staying in my aunt's house. We
walked up the stairs to the apartment with much trepidation. As we
stepped inside the apartment, we were lucky to find only a few things
had fallen on the floor. We organized everything and headed out as fast
as our feet could carry us to safe ground. Upon arriving at my aunt's
home, we greeted her and I left both grandma and aunt bertha
conversing, while I headed off to my assigned bedroom. When I sat
down on the bed into depleted slumber, all my thoughts centered on
the events of the previous day. It was quite an experience to have
survived such a disaster. I realized that nature can't be controlled and
life is a precious gift. Therefore, I know every step I take is a gift and
ever since then I have lived my life to the fullest potential.