Journal Entry 25: EMERGENCY!!!

Everyone has seen or heard of emergencies. TV, newspapers, and many other media sources are full of stories of people going through terrifying and life threatening ordeals. Have you ever been in a dangerous or emergency situation, such as a natural disaster, car crash, or a medical emergency? If so, what was the situation? How did it make you feel? If you have never been in an emergency situation yourself, how do you think you would react? Would you be able to control the fear and act effectively, or do you think you would panic? Would you freeze up, or run around in circles screaming? Or would you calmly take control and know just what to do? How can you prepare for emergencies? Do you think being prepared can help a person avoid panicking?

I've never been in a really serious emergencies in my life, but there was once a really long earthquake when I was in fifth grade that really scared me. That one time, we were in school and we were having a Chinese class (if I remember correctly). I was dozing off (shhh!!), and watch the teacher's mouth moving and moving, but I can't seem to hear what she was saying at all. Suddenly, I felt like the whole ground was trembling, and I thought I was dreaming again, but I realized that all the other students have also stopped paying attention and are all looking at each other quizzically. The trembling gradually turned into shaking, and we all stared at each other with fear and horror in our eyes. My stomach was filled with butterflies and I felt nauseated and wanted to cry, scream, yell and run all at the same time. "Everyone hide under your tables," the teacher said calmly, even though I can see that she, too, was very scared. After about three minutes (which seemed like hours to me), the quaking slowly stopped. Even though no one was hurt, we were all scared pretty badly, after all, we've all heard of the famous 921 Earthquake that killed thousands and millions of people. Now that I think about it, I am quite impressed by my Chinese teacher. I was really impressed by how calm she acted and how she handled the situation. She must have known that if she had shown any fear, then that would only make us kids even more scared.