"Destruct and Construct: What Milenyo could really do to us"

author: Cedric Viguilla

It was Thursday morning, the 28th of September. I remembered that we would be going to the barangays during the allotted NSTP period. As I sat up to gather my things, I noticed the strange darkness enveloping outside. I left my things unpacked, turned my cellular phone on, and went to the dining room to find out what was happening. Eventually, it turned out that the classes were suspended, just like what classmate told me the night before. I checked my phone once more for upcoming calls and messages, and was surprised to see a lot of messages emanating the same theme.

Later that morning, after I finished cooking my breakfast, the power was gone. Soon, the water supply followed. I felt a pound of frustration hit me as I took my morning meal in the darkness of the dining room. Water started dripping on the corners of the house. Right outside, the heavy rain continued its downpour. I concluded that the weather wasn’t as ordinary as the bad weathers that we encountered before.

People around me began to hurry and walk from here and there, busying themselves with all the necessary preparations for the wrath of nature. Other problems began to integrate in our minds: food and water shortage, mosquitoes, and even cockroaches, as if plagues were coming down to us from all directions; and just like plagues, they vanished within a number of days.

After recovering from all the “sufferings” and returning to my senses, somehow I learned that the era of tribulations wasn’t completely destructive after all. I enjoy many small things worth mentioning: the lulling tunes played by my father and his guitar as he sang his old favorite songs, a lot of “dinners by candlelight” which I considered very ironic at a stormy weather, a good number of laugh trips upon seeing very unusual things such as a pile of mud within the premises of SM Sta. Rosa, and more. I marveled at these wondrous thoughts just like remembering some memorable scenes from a movie. Thus, I can safely say that the storm “Milenyo” could have given anyone a wake-up call: one should just be keen enough to notice and hear it.

As for the other people around me, I am not certain yet of the behavior they had. According to the newspapers, only an estimated eighty (80) percent recovered its electric power source after the typhoon, leaving the remaining twenty percent still in the dark. This includes a number of my classmates and friends who are still “suffering” the inconveniences brought by the weather disturbance. The least I can do is lend a helping hand, which up to now is questionable for I don’t know how, yet.

Finally, I realized a basic truth in life that the importance of something is only realized when that something is gone. How I became resourceful during these times made me value the importance of things around me.