The Week I'll Never Forget//Irma

This is going to be an absolutely huge post.

But, it's a necessary post! So much has happened and I have to say something about it. This is a series of blogs that I will be posting over the next couple of days because it was a humongous week.

9/9/2017-9/17/2017

Hurricane Irma made landfall in Florida on Sunday, September 9, 2017. This has affected me in several ways but not in ways you might expect. I have family, extended family, and "friends that are not family but I consider them family" spread all throughout Florida. It was scary for all of us because the scope of the storm was so huge that there wasn't any time to worry, not even for this worrier. There was only time to get as best prepared as we could and hunker down, hoping for the best.

On the days leading up to the storm making landfall, there were several intentional meetings between the resident assistants in the dorm. Our residents were leaving the building as quickly as they could get a flight out. As employees of the school, and students in the residence halls, we got caught in the middle space where we should stay to assist our residents, but student safety is the number one concern. We are still students at the end of the day. See the conflict?

If you know me, you might know that I love social and emotional learning and that I truly believe in it. This staff is socially and emotionally intelligent. They are empathetic, kind, and genuinely wonderful, caring people. When it came down to deciding whether or not we were going home it was nearly purely our parents decision to pull us out of the situation. Several members of the staff used the word "guilty" when expressing the want to evacuate the school, myself included. We wanted to be on the front lines, of course we did. We wanted to be of assistance to our fellow staff members who were on duty for 24 hours, but with the line of staying or leaving being so unclear, it was hard to decide what to do. I feel so blessed to be among these people. These people who checked in when they left to say "I'm sorry, but I'm going back home. I need to." These individuals who kept tabs and updated each other on our situations. That empathy piece that so many people talk about these days came in handy. If you're on the staff I'm talking about, just know that I honestly do love and appreciate every single one of you, and I really think nothing but positive things of all of you.

Mom, Adrian, the dogs, and I evacuated to the hotel my mom manages in Lakeland. We were OK. We never lost power where we were. We lost Internet and cable services, and they were minimal damage is to the building that we stayed in, but we were totally OK; unscathed. My mom worked tirelessly to make sure that her hotel was up and running 24/7. She was wonder woman in every way. People notice those things. Of course I do, because she's my mom, but after the storm passed there were tons of branches and leaves down in the parking lot and there was minimal flooding. Guests of the hotel emerged from the rooms the next morning, and, like clockwork, began to assist in clearing the parking lot, helped with the flooding to the building, and assessed the scene for damages. My mom wasn't alone and it was heartwarming and amazing to see a community come together like that, even on such a small scale. All I can say is wow.

When we got to our house an absolutely incredible number of branches were littering the lawn and there was no power for several days, but thankfully our house wasn't damaged at all. We are lucky. Some people aren't as lucky. I've seen the news, I've seen the devastation and I want to do something about it. Tomorrow I will be giving blood at our quarterly blood drive to help victims of hurricane Irma. After this post goes live I will also be donating $25 to the Red Cross, because if our school would have been evacuated we would have been sheltered at a Red Cross run facility.

I'll leave you with a quote: