Have you ever had to go through something that would change your life? Doesn’t matter how small or how big the situation is, it does change your life in the long run. For me it was having a house fire when I was younger, it had happened in 2001 and was right after New Year's. The life changing event took place in our house and it changed me forever.

Growing up, my mom would light a candle all the time. This night she forgot to blow it out, my younger sister and her were in the living room. My older sister, her friend and myself were in our room and we were all sleeping. My mom woke up to hearing crackling in the wall, come to find the noise was from the candle going up to the wall into the attic. Which caused the attic to be the first to burn.

As the attic was burning we were still in the house, my mom had managed to wake up and get us all out of the house. My mom had called 911 and got us in the car and moved the van. Later, as we were all in the van my younger sister and myself were crying none stop while my older sister and her friend were calm or as calm as they could be. My mom had come and checked on us and asked if we wanted to go to my older sister’s dads house. We said yes and went with him.

We spent the night there and my mom had stayed at the house. The next morning it was as if we were trying to act as if nothing happened, but the thing is it did happen and it had scared me for life. Due to the fire, I had nightmares about fire for a few months after and I no longer allowed candles in the house. Whenever we got the order books for Yankee Candle from school, I would hand it to my mom and say, “You can look, but we aren’t getting any” and she’d laugh and say okay.

We were a family who loved to camp and be around a campfire but due to the event, it took me awhile before I was able to feel comfortable around a campfire again. I would stare at the fire for what seemed forever to be sure that it wouldn’t do anything or go anywhere. Even today it still bothers me, not as much as it used to but it still scares me. Lighters being lit in my face scares me, which I feel like would scare anyone.

I’ve been told by multiple people that I should get over it and move on, but it’s hard for me. My younger sister has candles now and she lights them even though she knows how I feel about them. I have walked in her room while she slept with the candle on, I blew it out and asked her about it the next day and she would say she didn’t remember falling asleep without blowing it out.

To this day candles and anything related to a flame scares me. I do want to get over it, but it is kind of hard to do because all I can see is our house burning. It might be lame but I have people in my life who do understand how I feel, they may think I’m being ridiculous but they act as if they care.