Saturday, January 13, 2018, 8:07 am
An alarm blares out on the phone. I do not have the emergency alerts activated, but I hear my sister talking on the phone to my mom. My mom works at the post office, and her boss instructs her to stay at the base because of an emergency alert.
“Dad, there’s a missile heading towards Hawaii,” my sister says.
“What?” My dad replies, thinking that it was not real.
“It’s real. Get the radio and turn it to the news station,” my sister says. I listen to their conversation, still in bed with my eyes closed and the news of the missile passing over my head. I just wanted to sleep.Photo Courtesy of Twitter.com
Then my sister wakes me up, panicking. “There’s a nuclear missile coming, look up what to do,” my sister instructs.
I look at my phone: one miss call from my Grandma and an I love you text from a friend.
I quickly grabbed my laptop and googled what to do in a missile attack. I sat in my sister’s room, unable to comprehend anything. I texted my friends making sure they were okay. I overhear the conversation from my dad talking to my aunt seeing how they were doing. My sister is in the bathroom, trying to calm down a cut that would not stop bleeding. At this moment, I was scared, but I still dared to laugh: the situation seemed too impossible to be true.
Ten minutes passed. It was not until my sister got another call from my mom. “IT’S A FALSE ALARM,” my sister called out. Confirming this, I looked at Twitter and Hawaii representative Tulsi Gabbard tweet out that it was indeed a false alarm. Another call came from my Grandma and reassurance texts were sent to my friends.
HAWAII – THIS IS A FALSE ALARM. THERE IS NO INCOMING MISSILE TO HAWAII. I HAVE CONFIRMED WITH OFFICIALS THERE IS NO INCOMING MISSILE.
At that moment, a collective sigh of relief filled the room, my fear of a missile strike now replaced with anger towards the person who caused the panic
After the whole ordeal, I decided to turn on my emergency notification alerts. Finally, at 10:45, another emergency alert was sent saying that it was all a false alarm, thirty-eight minutes after the initial message.Now, I was looking for answers. How did this happen? Who did this? Why did it take so long to send out a false alarm message? I scrolled through articles and twitter moments, reading the reactions of other people. If it were not for my mom, I would not have known that the alarm was false that quickly. However, for other people, they spent 30 minutes living in fear. That is when it clicked for me: at the moment of the blaring alarm, if a missile were to hit, I could have died.
For the rest of the day, that made me think. While running errands, I kept looking at the strangers around me thinking of what they were doing in those thirty minutes. If the missile did hit, then none of us would have been there now. It was just weird continuing to live as if nothing ever happened.
I talked to a friend who said they were not ready to die yet; they have much more to accomplish. I agreed. At the same time, I thought to myself that if that missile were to hit and if I were to die, I would have been happy with the life I lived. I have not done something prominent in the world. I did not make history as the first person who did something or lead a revolutionary movement. Despite all of that, I felt content with what I experienced.
During those moments of panic, I could only remember the times that made me happy. Those happy times were not when I received awards or other momentous occasions. Instead, it was hanging out with family and friends. From trips to family dinner night to conversations during school, that is all that I could recall. I thought about all the things I did to make myself happy. From trying new foods, lettering, and taking pictures, I was glad I got the opportunity to do those things. During those thirty minutes, that is all that mattered to me.
The aftermath of this whole situation taught me two things:
1. Sometimes all you need to be happy is good company. Reflect more on the times that made you happy and appreciate those memories. That memory might be the last time you get to experience it.
2. In the end, you only remember what you think about yourself. So do what you want to do. Be happy with who you are and what you have done.
*last photo provide by Amanda Valiente