After a Few Days...

Only a mere four days have passed since my hometown was hit with a dreaded tornado. Since then, many thoughts have run through my head. I sit and think about the night of the storm. I had just gotten out of school and went shopping in Mishawaka. My mom texted me a few times telling me to drive careful due to some thunderstorms in the area. Well, I hurried with my shopping, which, for a girl, I guess is supposed to be pretty impressive. Whatever. I rushed home, because A: I'm not a huge fan of storms...and B: It was almost time for The Office. So, after arriving home, and realizing I wasn't going to see my show, I decided to head to bed early. I was scheduled for my first day of training at Starbucks the following morning at 5:30.

After lying in bed for about a half hour, my mom yelled upstairs to me to run to the basement. We have to go outdoors to get to our basement, so I ran in mud puddles and rain to get the nasty shelter. We sat down there listening to what we could on the scanner. First the tornado touching on the corner of SR 19 and CR 1350. Then it was hitting CR 7 and US 6. And finally it was gone, after wiping out CR 9 and 54. Within about five minutes, Nappanee was changed. It seemed like hours had passed and then our power went out. Time: 11 pm...Sirens everywhere...officially can't sleep...work in less than six hours.

I went to sleep and woke up a few hours later to get ready for a memorable first day of work. After taking luke warm shower with no water pressure in the light of five candles, I made myself somewhat presentable for work. I drove in the pitch black darkness that slowly got lit up by the emergency vehicles. I arrived at Martin's and walked in, only to discover that today would most definitely not be my first day of work. I was sent home since they had no idea if/when they were going to open. It was as I was walking back outside, that I decided to see how bad the damage really was. Even though it was still dark outside, I walked up to the corner of CR 7 and US 6. I felt completely helpless then, and even more so as I went up later with my grandparents. All I could do was pray and hope that everyone was alright, especially those that I knew had been hit.

The day passed on. Our power eventually turned on around noon. My friend wanted to come to my house to hang out. Normally laughing and having a great time with her, I felt empty inside. She kept saying how she wanted to go get something to eat and to go look at the damage. Even though every food business was closed, looking at more damage was the last thing I wanted to do. I got the same feeling I had on September 11th many years ago, except this time, it was my own hometown. It was a mile away from my house. People that I knew were without everything. I felt guilty that I had been so lucky as to have not gotten hit. It was devastating.

The weekend went by and I found myself finally letting out all my thoughts to my boyfriend in our church parking lot. I was using fun events over the weekend to hide everything that was inside me. At times I focused to much on my life and none on the reality of others'. I thought about how Nappanee was beginning to get a negative look upon it, and hopefully this event could bring us all together like the community that we supposedly are. I thought about places I had been in the past year, such places that have been ripped away and no longer exist. I thought about time. And how quickly it passes, yet certain moments can last forever. I thought about how fortunate Nappanee really is. Even though we got so much damage, enough to catch the national news' eye, we had not one fatality. Yeah, buildings are gone. Houses demolished. Our favorite fast food places in pieces. But in some ways, this tornado was a good thing for us. It made us all realize that God was watching and protecting everyone. That He has a reason for everyone to be here today. And that He wanted to bring the communities together to work for a common goal, so we can become proud of something real.

I never thought about a tornado hitting my hometown for a million years, but now that it has, I know not to take such simple things for granted. Here I am complaining that my printer is running out of ink, and it's too cold in my house. How selfish one can be in such a time as this.

The tornado is changing our town, our community, and all of its people, including myself. So, in some ways, I thank God for this tornado. And I will never forget what I've seen, heard, and experienced throughout this disaster.