The Unexpected

Everyone has numerous events that change their life’s, there are small and large events, situation, or people that make the impacts on our lives. It could be as minute as the cashier letting that ten cents slide, to as great as someone saving your life. We all have events that make us who we are, the age we start noticing the events is diverse from person to person. The age we start making the impacts on people is up to us. The first big event that changed my life happened when I was just seven, in October of 2003. In San Diego October is the time of scary movies, disturbing monsters, trick or treating, and sometimes a week of evacuation for a fire. There have been a few devastating fires that have occurred in the last some years. The first was in 1988, it cleared 250,000 acres of land. The next was in 2000 and 234,669 acres where burned. The following was in 2003, 5,953 separate fires burned that year. 750,043 acres of land were blacked by the flames in 2003. The fires that year took the lives of 25 people, and left numerous injured.  The fires that year also took my home and everything I owned.

On October 26, 2003 I woke up to find it still pitch black, I was convinced it was still night, however my clock said otherwise. My mom sitting in the kitchen drinking her tea, and my brother’s logos and baseball cards were scattered across the floor, the normal morning routine.  Except my brothers weren't next to their toys playing rather there face where plaster against the glass doors in the living room, staring at the orangey, red strip outlining the mountain. My mother wasn’t reading her book rather she was just sitting and waiting, with a worried expression on her face. My mom gave me a hug and sent my brothers and i to get dress, grandmom was coming down. Which was also out of the ordinary with her living so far away. After getting dressed we joined my mom in the living room where she pointed at the growing red streak on the mountain. She explained to us that is was a large fire, even though it looked far away she told us once it reached the bottom of that mountain it would soar up our side or the mountain very rapidly. She proceeded to assure us that the stuff falling from the sky was also ash and not snow. After we asked our repetitive questions about the fire she told us my grandmom would take us to her house, and she would meet us there later on that night. My grandmom finally arrived and loaded my brothers and I in her car with a few things we decided where vital; my oldest brother who was 11 brought his teddy bear , my other brother who was 9 brought a game boy, and I brought my dolly. On the way to my granmom’s we listened to the news on the radio, it was all bad news never good, it said the fire had grown bigger; how it joined with other fires; how it jumped the freeway. My grandmom did a very good job at entertaining us. She had my cousins come over and feed us Mac and Cheese, she also allowed us to eat as much ice cream as we liked; she was trying to keep our minds off of what was happening. After what seemed like forever my mom came to get my brothers and I. When driving my mom told us how it didn't seem good when she left, she went to down to put the pool cover on and the flames had shot up like a wall in our back yard. I could see the fear in her face as she relived it over again. My mom also didn't have the heart to tell us she couldn't save our cat, Lucky; she told us he darted when she opened the front door; he was really locked in the garage. We drove to a hotel, it was across the street from my mom’s business and they allowed us to stay there for a week with no charge for the room or food. It’s nice to see people affection in a time of need. After a week of just waiting we finally where allowed to go see the damage done by the fire. The police and fireman told us to expect the worst. As a seven year old the worst was nothing to what I saw. Everything was black, dead, and gone. My family had lost our cloths, pictures, furniture, and our home. We lost almost everything, we still had each other.

When you don’t have anything you start to notice everything. Every hug, smile, laugh, and memory they all become so much more important. After everything, the stuff in that house was just belongings, items, and purchase.  I still had my family, which was all that really mattered.

Oh and the cat really was lucky, my brothers and I went to go see our play area and Lucky appeared in the bushed, dirty, thirsty, and exited to see us.

“ When something bad happens you have three choices. You can either let it define you, let it destroy you or you can let it strengthen you. “

-Unknown