Essay on Earthquake. My Unpleasant Experience

BEEP. My alarm goes off around 6:45, and I am filled with irritating thought of getting out of bed. I fluttered my eyes open and then turned on the light beside me, piercing my vision. I rose up, stretching into life. My mind was scrambled from a rough night of sleep, but I figured I should begin to start my morning routine regardless.

I shuffled to brush my teeth, and change my clothes to something more appropriate than my pajamas. As I slowly walk down my stairs, I check my phone. Alerts of many natural disasters flood my inbox. Hurricanes, Tsunamis, and earthquakes are now common around the world. After scrolling through the rest of the calamities, I grab my favorite cereal and proceed to my day. But as I slowly lift my spoon, and groggily eat, a flash of regret fills my mind. I couldn’t believe it. I had forgotten to finish my biology homework. 

I sprint upstairs, busting open my backpack, and ransacking through my binders filled with paper. One after another, I find a particular paper in mind. I settle down, finding a pencil, and resting into my desk chair. I find my mind rushing to fill in the boxes, but struggle because my phone becomes hyper with notifications. DING. I flip down my phone as an instant reaction. DING. I turn my head, staring at my phone, but go back to my homework as I am running out of time before I need to get on the bus. DING. Another notification hits. My frustration gets to me, and I turn off my ringer. I turn my focus back onto my homework. But my paranoia gets to me. I flip over my phone, and alerts and notifications overcome my phone screen. It takes me a little while to pinpoint what was happening. But, throughout all these endless notifications, I see a text from my closest friend, Lindsey. I click on the text, opening my phone with ease. I look at the text message and stare in a moment in shock. Lindsey had warned me. An earthquake was coming. 

I text her back, “What do you mean-BAM. A jolt of force knocked me to the ground. Instantly, violent shaking flips me around. BOOM. A whirl of vision confuses me, and I begin to try to stand up. I manage to stretch my knees back into position, only by leaning up into the wall. I had no idea what to do. I remember through the vicious rocking all of the natural disasters I saw this morning. What is going to happen to me? What should I do? I start to panic even more than previously. Making a quick decision, I duck my head under my body, panting. All I could hear was vigorous and ruthless slamming. BANG.

My shelves fall, and a plethora of books fall into the endless mess of debris. My desk creaking and rocking back and forth has started to fall into pieces. With nothing to protect myself, I cower back into my protective position. My school teachers had always told me to cover my head, but I wonder if that is even going to help in the slightest. The shaking continues to threaten me. Rocking to and fro, I hear nothing but the chattering of furniture moving about, and I see blankets and pillows falling into unorganized fashion. Books from my shelves fall and I can hear the ripping and damaging of pages. Clothes falling off the hangers clang down on the floor. It feels as if it has been an eternity. By now, I've lost all sense of time. But scrapping knowledge from my brain, I know the largest earthquakes have lasted way over 5 minutes. How bad is this? Blurs of thrashing cross my eyes, and suddenly, it all comes to a halt. 

Everything feels still, yet so uneasy. The eerie air of the debris-filled room surrounds me, and I begin to process the damage. Everything was sparsely laid across my room. As I feel an urgent call from the other room, I slowly begin to shuffle, stepping over the rubbish. I push open my door, which has miraculously survived the earthquake.

 “Josh! Are you okay?” I hear from the left of me.

I know it must be my mom, Jennifer. My mind scrabbles, and I rush into her room. 

“Yes! Where are you? Are you safe?” I shout.

“I’m right over here!” 

I see my mom rise from under her desk. I ran straight towards her. I wrap her into my arms. With a sigh of relief, I know we are one of the luckiest. I let go of her and scan the rest of the house. A mess of furniture piles around our once neat home. Our glass shelves, once holding our prized pictures and items, now are laid across the floor, completely shattered. A sudden jolt of realization hits me.

“We need to find emergency supplies,” I tell my mom.

I rush down the stairs, careful not to trip on the rubble and broken furniture. I slowly open the door into the garage. Creeping through the boxes flown across the room, I find the bags and gallons of water. I grab the essentials, using all of my strength, and bring them into the house. What do we do now? I realize that we are going to need to secure our safety, as most power lines and electricity are out. My mother came down the stairs. 

“Luckily, we are far enough from the coast that the tsunami will not hit us. But, we need to make sure that we aren’t in any more danger.” She says.

I calm down and peek out the window. Our next-door neighbors didn't get the best of it. Their home is completely wrecked. I hope nobody got hurt. We open the supplies, and I am filled with the most reassurance I could gather at the moment. With everything possible to aid us in these emergency bags, we are safe. I settled down. Then, out of the blue, I hear a car coming down the street. I look outside, and I see the large yellow bus. I ran straight onto it. I mean, I don’t want to put that biology homework to waste, right?