May 12th WEN CHUAN Earthquake

May 12^th WEN CHUAN Earthquake

       It was in 2008 May 12^th, and I was in junior middle school. It was a really hot day, and students started return to school after lunch break time. The weather was too hot to calm down, and I was a little restless because we would have a math test when bell rang. At 2:28 p.m., suddenly the chair began to frantically shake, tables began to tremble, and my head went blank. My desk mate said, “ It must be earthquake”. Our teacher of life had just taught us how should we do (what we should do) when we meet some emergency situations the day before that day, and I didn’t believe such coincidence. But more and more people said that it was an earthquake, and all of us began to panic. We recalled what we learned in life class (life class: a class to teach students some life skills like teach how to planting, cooking, photograph and what should we do when we meet special situation). And some students said, “Go under the desk quickly.” Others said, “We need to run out of here to find a empty place.” At beginning, I felt a little bit interested because I had never met such thing before, but as time went by, I felt more and more nervous. Then we heard many rapid footsteps out of door, and the politics teacher came to classroom and let us ran as quickly as we could to outdoor playground. All students in my school were in the playground, wanting to know what actually happened. I tried to call my mother, however, since the bad signal I couldn’t connect to her. My Geography professor came to tell us that the earthquake occurred in Sichuan, but he didn’t have any more details about the earthquake. Then school made sure that we would be safe, and we could return to home. I walked back to home with my friends quickly because I really worried about my families; hope everything is good for them. When I was almost arrived at home, I saw my mother was diving to come get me, and when I saw my mother, I felt safety immediately. We all felt lucky that we were all safe, then we ate dinner outside and walked until most of people went back to home then we went back to home together. The next day I went school, and my friend told me that there was an earthquake again in that night, but I slept too deeply to feel that earthquake and I realized this earthquake wasn’t like before, maybe it was a greater disaster

       After a night I received more and more information about the earthquake from kinds of news. Shocking earthquake happened in Sichuan province China. It was really a serious disaster, which not only destroyed a little place, but also influenced half of China , and the worst place was in Sichuan province .The earthquake destroyed nearly everything in Wen Chuan country Sichuan province. It was really terrible. We saw detailed information from television; troops arrived there to save people who were buried or injured, then more and more other places’ troops, doctors, and volunteers went to affected areas to help, hoping they could save more people in three golden days. In those three days, once I went back to home, I would open television to see how many people were saved and how many people died. Thousands of people were injured even died. Some people’s lives had totally changed: a girl loved dancing very much, but she lost her right leg in the earthquake, a Mom died for protecting her two months baby, she recorded voice by phone and said, “ mom love you”, a middle school teacher died but protected his six students to be alive. Lots of painful stories happened during those hard days. It was the longest three days. After 3 days, government organized an activity bemoaned for people who died during this earthquake, at 2:28pm everybody stood up and prayed for died people. During parrying I felt powerless and mournful. I cried even I had no connect with those victims. Next days, Welfare institutions helped children who lost families from this earthquake to find new families to take care of them. Different places’ people donated money and articles for daily use to help affected people rebuild home.

       That was the first time that I felt Life is so fragile. Everything seemed to happen in dream; I couldn’t believe this brutal disaster really happened. Thousands of great lives left this colorful world, sleeping forever with people’s tears. There would be no more disasters for people who died; but for the alive, it would be a challenge; Losing parents, kids, lovers and friends, they were deeply hurt by the disaster. Disaster not only destroyed body, but also destroyed soul. Wounds could be healed, but soul of grief could not recover that quickly. 

       May 12^th, I will not forget the day when the strong earthquake took place in Si Chuan, China. Lots of people lost their lives instantly, and many happy families went broken.

Humans are really small when facing a disaster. So I’ll treasure everyday, every person in my life, and treasure every single breath.