A week ago, Tallahassee was hit by Hurricane Hermine, the first hurricane to make a landfall in Florida since 2005. Its short but intense visit in Tallahassee made the lives of its residents difficult for almost a week. A large number of the population lost electricity for a while since trees got uprooted and these affected the electric lines. Some houses and cars also got damaged after huge trees fell on them.
This recent event that hit Tallahassee made me think about those people who people who do not have the luxuries that we get to especially electricity and clean water yet they still manage to survive life. It made me re-think my perspective and outlook in life.
For almost a week, we experienced to not have electricity and a number of households also did not have water. At this era, electricity is a big factor in everyone’s lives since almost everything that we use either at home, in the office or in school is being run by electricity. Personally, since I came from a country where it is typical to experience power blackouts and water shortages, it was not a new environment for me. But ever since being here in America, where electricity and water outages are very rare, it was a shock that I got frustrated a lot, even though I really am used to that kinds of situations.
First world problem, that is what I call it. Yes, people did not like it that they do not have electricity because they were not able to go to school, to go to work, businesses had to shut down because their main source to function is electricity. But truth be told, what irritated them the most about what happened was that everyone, students especially that they would lose their Snap streaks, they would not be able to watch their favorite show, afraid that they would be out of the loop. You know they would be okay with suspension of classes as long as they have access to their social media accounts. Another thing was not being able to use the air condition.
While we were sulking, hating on the line men who are “slow” in doing their job in restoring electricity for us, have we ever thought of those people who are constantly experiencing these situations on a daily basis? There are people in this world who deal with much harder situations than the one week that we had no electricity and for some, even water. For the week that passed, have we even thought of how lucky we are to be very fortunate on the luxuries that we receive? How we unconsciously take advantage of them? Do we ever think of the families who do not even have water to clean themselves, not to mention to drink?
It was a bad week for all of us. I am well aware of that. But after this unfortunate event, may we remember, may it be a reminder to all of us to not be taking things for granted. There are a lot of people who do not get as lucky as we do and we have to be thankful for everything.
