A Day With Milenyo

Author: Chrysoberyl Lim Dacuno

The evening of September 27, I received a text message from a classmate stating that classes had to be postponed for the next day. I was doing my Intrcom project at that time and receiving a message like that gave me so much relief. I was startled by the news that a huge storm was coming to hit Luzon. In fact, I had no idea about it until my mom called and told us. I woke up the next day only to find out that the power was gone. We thought it would not last long but it was off for about two days and thank God we still had water. The storm was really bad the rest of the day. Some of our window screens got broken and two of our trees in the garden fell down. My little sister got really scared that she thought the typhoon was the next hurricane Katrina. I assured her that it wasn't going to be and told her to pray so the heavy rain and wind would go away. The whole day was pretty boring and it was the first time I slept very early after so many years. It felt great.

The next day I was so anxious to hear news about the typhoon but I had to wait till Saturday. The first time I went out I was astounded to see how Milenyo caused such great chaos. I was tremendously shocked to see so many uprooted trees on the road and even roofless homes. It felt like it was my very first time witnessing such a terrible destruction that I couldn't help but wonder if Milenyo was a result of God's wrath. Somehow I feel that it is a wake-up call to all of us. A warning that change has to occur before it's too late and that something great has to be done either within ourselves or to the things around us. Others may see it as a usual occurence since our country is hit by tons of typhoons every year that we become so used to it. They may go on with life and not realizing what might have caused it. Sure, Milenyo was a natural disaster yet the aftermath wouldn't be that bad if we cared for our environment. Or it could be that it occured because the world is becoming too worldly. Whatever it might be, it should still affect us in a way that will cause our eyes to open, ears to listen and hearts to be sensitive on what is going on around us.

It was very devastating and still is to know that a lot of people have lost their homes, properties, families and even their lives. It is natural to experience such a calamity but if we can do something to prevent it from happening again or help our nation to solve this problem, then why not do it. I realized that everything that we possess in this world can be gone in just a second and that any time anything can happen to us. I think that what matters now is that we, who have been fortunate, should feel grateful that we have been spared and that we all should treat every single day as an awesome opportunity for us to do something great to others and to this world that we live in.