In the summer of 1999, I was in Mexico City leaning against a handrail outside of a Sanborn’s restaurant (waiting for my boyfriend, Enrique, to pick me up). The handrail rocked a little which I thought happened due to me leaning upon it, but then I saw the power lines sway and realized that something bigger was happening. The tremor was so slight that it may not have even made it in the news that day, but it was a big deal to me!
Even bigger was what happened last Wednesday down here in Costa Rica. It was 8:45am and Enrique, David, and I were getting ready to leave the house. The earth started to shake and Enrique gathered us under a door frame. The quake lasted a little over a minute which is an eternity when you do not know what is going to happen next. It was VERY scary for me.
I am so thankful that the three of us were together because I do not know how I would have reacted without Enrique by my side. He is always good at being level headed. I feel like I would have panicked and cried which would not have been good for David to see since he feeds off of our behavior. Enrique kept us calm and played it off to David like something really cool was happening – no big deal. At our place, only a picture fell off the wall. To see more “shaky, shaky”, click here.
But it was a big deal; it was a magnitude 7.6 earthquake! Since Wednesday, I have read online that many tremors have happened since then. There was even a magnitude 5.6 quake yesterday at 2:30pm! Thankfully, I did not feel a thing.
It is very nerve wracking to be in a state of uncertainty where you do not have control over the situation. I am scared that another earthquake may happen, but I cannot live in fear. I cannot play the “what if” game all the time. I just have to learn how to be safe and then leave the rest in God’s hands. We are not in control of our destiny and we must be ready at any time to leave this world.
