Jashan Takhar Personal Essay 5

Secret Survival Strategies 

 

From the ages four through seven, my biggest fear was undoubtedly tornadoes. It began one day when the local weatherman visited my old preschool to tell us about the dangers of extreme weather. He showed us pictures of all types of possible occurrences from thunderstorms to blizzards, but the one that stuck out to me the most was the tornado. I was captured in a trance by its sheer enormity, terrified, yet marveling at it at the same time. In the picture, a nearby farmhouse looked tiny compared to the huge twister. The weatherman warned us that tornadoes had the potential to destroy entire buildings. If you got caught in one, you could get a “boo-boo.” After the weatherman left, the kids in my class went back to play dinosaurs, but I sat at my seat solemnly, knowing that from that day on my number one mission in life would be to avoid tornadoes. 

The same day, I immediately went home and built a pillow fort, reinforcing with the power of masking tape to make sure no tornado could get through it. I forgot all about this within the next three days, but my feelings would be reignited a few years later in first grade when I had my first tornado drill. While the other kids were talking loudly, I quietly carried out all the safety steps out to the best of my ability. Later, a firefighter came to talk about what to do if a tornado hit the area while you were still at home. I took everything he said to heart: stay in your basement, avoid windows, have canned food, and have a sturdy mattress for cover. As soon as school was over, I begged my mom to go to Walmart to get cans of chicken soup (with SpongeBob-shaped noodles for extra protection). At home, I fortified my pillow fort with a blanket since my parents didn't let me take their bed's mattress. 

Even though I had a lot of fun doing all of this, my paranoia was increasing exponentially. I avoided every window whenever possible. Whenever it rained outside, my mind would always wander to the possibility of a tornado happening right where I stood. You could say that my whole life “revolved” around tornadoes. Eventually, it wasn’t a matter of if, it was a matter of when. 

I reached my breaking point the day a real tornado warning was announced at during school. As soon as the voice over the intercom finished the announcement, my heart filled with dread. I immediately longed for my pillow fort and SpongeBob soup back home. I started shivering out of anxiety. On the other hand, I was surprised to see my classmates act completely normal as we went through all the procedures. Am I the only one who takes death seriously here?! I thought. As I kneeled with my head clasped in my hands like the drills taught us, I nearly cried. After what felt like an eternity, the intercom finally announced that the tornado was no longer in the area. The threat was gone. I immediately dropped to the floor in relief. 

Months and years passed. For a little, I remained vigilant. However, I never heard of a warning again, so my fear slowly decayed until I stopped caring at all. 

Sometimes, I still go back to think about how I acted that day. I thought about how the kids who couldn’t even spell “tornado” acted better than me. My “secret survival strategies” did nothing but build up to my downfall. After I learned about the laughably low risk of a tornado hitting our area on a day-to-day basis, it just begged the question: how many things do we take too seriously today? How many mountains do we make out of molehills? Maybe, sometimes, we need to just go with the flow (while still avoiding tornadoes).