College_Essay

College Essay People die, animals die and plants die; apparently homes too. The former are expected, the latter are not. One never thinks that the bad things in life will happen; we think that we are untouchable, that our lives are perfect. I used to think this way until it all went up in smoke. February 21, 2007 started out great; I had aced a test in math and nailed my solo in orchestra. After school that day I was helping out in my history club helping when I got a call from my sister Sandra. She told me that there was smoke coming out of my mom’s window. Thinking it was a joke I started laughing but when she yelled at me I realized it wasn’t. I told her to call 911 and hung up. I told my teacher what was happening and ran out of the room. When I got to the school gates I could smell smoke. Wow was all I could think, I couldn’t believe something like this was happening. As I got closer to my house the smell of smoke intensified. The wow feeling from earlier was gone. Fear settled in its place. The fifteen minute walk made the muscles in my legs scream in agony but I ignored them and kept going. All I could think about was my dog and how she was inside the house. Numbly, I kept thinking that I would get to my house and it wouldn’t be happening. When I finally got to the bridge next to my house I knew I couldn’t keep lying to myself. I stood and watched as huge billowing clouds of smoke blew onto the lake. It was like time had stopped. The whizzing sound of the cars, the sirens and the shouts of the people gathering around the house all died down. I could only stare in horror as I saw my home being destroyed. I couldn’t bring myself to actually look at the house so I cut through my neighbors’ backyard and the chaos that I was met with was overwhelming. There were firefighters, policemen, and neighbors all making some kind of noise. My sisters were at a neighbor’s house with my dog so I went over to them. I was so happy to see them safe that I started crying. My mom got home just as they finished putting out the fire. Only my mom’s room had been burned but the rest were damaged by smoke and water. The first things that the firefighters brought out were our instruments, 3 violins and a cello. The next day they let us in the house and when I saw my room I began crying again. The room was covered in soot. My things were strewn around the room and pieces of the roof littered the floor. The library was the most shocking to me because all my books were soggy and falling apart it was like someone kicked me. After that my friend Nat saw me and told not to stress over the material things, that I should be grateful that everyone was safe. It wasn’t until much later that I took it to heart. Nowadays I don’t worry too much about things and focus on the more important things in life. Life really is too short to let some short circuit ruin it.