Pensieve #2: Where Were You On July 16?

Pensieve is a blog series which features short and often funny past-life captures. Dip your head into this Pensieve and revisit the murky waters of my memory.



I was in sixth grade and we were dismissed early (because of Daylight Saving Time, I think). I was the first to arrive at our service vehicle and to kill time while waiting for my servicemates, I decided to chat with my classmates in the next parked vehicle.

We were laughing so hard that the vehicle shook. Then I realized it was not because of our laughing. I shouted at the driver to stop rocking the van (I thought he was making fun of us). It feels like a basketball was being dribbled on top of the van. But the driver just gave me a horror-struck look of denial. And then it hit me...

EARTHQUAKE!!!

I confirmed it when I saw the other vehicles being shaken by a seemingly invisible hand. Then the girls in the nearby soda fountain started shouting, crying and scrambling to find a spot under the tables. The Xerox machine slid across the sidewalk and almost reached the pavement. I got out of the van and ran to the nearby empty lot, away from the nearest 1-story building.

The shaking was taking forever. I was already getting dizzy. I didn’t even have time to pray because my mind was already racing with a lot of thoughts. Like my third grade sister was still having her class on the first floor of our 4-storey building. Or if my Mom was already home.

After what seemed like hours, the shaking stopped. We re-assembled inside our service and hurried home, literally and figuratively shaken but with stories to tell.

Our road home runs parallel to a big river. I noticed that the river is muckier than ever, as if a witch has stirred it into a thick, filthy brew.

We will learn later how fortunate we were. Because in different places in Luzon, the damage was immense and horrific. A whole school collapsed in Nueva Ecija. Two hotels toppled down in Baguio. Churches fell on their knees in La Union.



I don’t know how many lives were lost when the ground shook that day. July 16 will forever be mourned as one of the darkest days in history.

The day nature showed us how insignificant we are in the face of its wrath.

P.S. I know at least four peeps whose birthday falls on this fateful day. Happy birthday!!! For the sake of pun...continue to rock this world.