So my countdown is done. Today is March first 2009...
two years ago today my high school was hit by an F5 tornado completely destroying it and killing eight students. It happened my junior year at 1:15 pm during second block...we had been packing up and getting ready to go to a WGI indoor drumline competition down in florida when our principal came on telling us to get in the hallways...we sat there for hours just waiting for this weather to pass, playing on our ipods and complaining about rumbling stomachs...and then they told us we were being let out early at 1:00...a few minutes later the lights flickered on and off...nobody really thought anything about it until they flickered a second time and this time didn't come back on...our ears were popping and kids were screaming someone's arms were around me and i remember looking up and the huge metal doors leading outside as they banged against the metal frame and looking up at the window above them wondering when this was going to be over...you know when people say your entire life flashes before your eyes before you die? well it's true...because time stands completely still, everything stops as life slips away and out of grasp. And just as fast as it began, it was over. My drum instructor came tearing through our little hallway and threw open the double doors leading outside. Complete destruction, utter chaos, everything was gone...except for the little hallway the protected Enterprise High School's 2006-2007 drumline. We had to go through our destroyed band room and see our instruments covered in pink insulation and ceiling, a lead pipe three times my size stuck through the gaping ceiling. Outside was like a warzone. Our band truck was flipped over car were smashed and completely wrecked...the funny thing was my teachers motorcycle was stull on it's kickstand, with not a scratch...and a little sapling tree was still standing tall surrounded by huge pines beaten down to mere splinters. Methane gas filled my nose, the science wing was flattened and the gases were leaking out. The ceiling collapsed on one of the hallways...killing eight of our students...taking them away forever. I saw my best friend climb through what was once a wall. I still wasn't crying, i couldn't cry...a feeling of just utter shock and disbelief washed through me. I almost threw up when i saw the twisted metal and everything just shattered, like a really pissed off giant just stomped through and had a complete temper tantrum. Sirens and helicopters and police and firemen and blood and screaming and dirt, glass, bricks, tears...everything all at once. Hugs and I love yous...we all had to walk around the school and run to the church across the street because another one was coming. Like little lost lambs with nothing left to hold onto except for the robes of a shephard. I fell on my face at the altar and couldn't help but let out every tear i ever had couped up in me. My parents were frantically looking for me and finally we met up in the church's sanctuary and went home...but i was still there, looking at the faces, looking at the rubble, my high school, my home, my school spirit, my break ups and bathroom laughs, my sweaty days of drum camp, my companionship, my pep-rallies, my twelve hour days of unending practices...my heart stood there mourning for everything lost that day. And it's still there...watching ghosts of people standing there doing the exact same thing. I remember sitting in bed at night with no power just staring outside, with no lights working in town the moon shone so bright. That thursday we were supposed to go to a competition, a few of us still went, where we didn't play but showed more sport and heart than any of the lines performing...
I remember having a generator hooked up to our house so we could watch the news with an old tv that was hooked up to rabbit ears, i remember seeing those eight faces staring back at me from the tv...
I miss you
Katie Strunk, Peter Dunn, Jamie Vidensek, Mikey Tompkins, AJ Jackson, Ryan Moehler, Michael Bowen, and Michelle Wilson
Katie's beautiful smile
Peter's gangster ways ;)
Jamie's kind heart
Mikey's helpful disposition
Aj's amazing sense of humor
ryan's quiet but loving heart
Michael's amazing talent
and michelle's youthful heart
I live in the deep south...so tornadoes aren't that rare...but snow is...and today I woke up to little flurries outside my window.
It's fun to think that up there eight amazing teenagers are making it snow in little old enterprise alabama and giving us a chance to dance around outside and catch snowflakes on our tongues instead of mourning and moping around.
