Blackout??

On September 9, 2011 there was a widespread blackout from the whole San Diego are to Yuma, Arizona. During this time I was at volleyball practice in the Olympian High School gym. Allthough there were no lights we kept practice ongoing. We thought that it may have just been the lights burning out due to the lack of the custodians changing the lights. I assumed that because there was an issue before with the lighting. To be honest me and our JV volleyball team thought it was pretty exciting and adventorous to practice in the dark, it was a different experience for us to enjoy. Moments later before practice ended, the Head Coach for Olympian Volleyball, Coach Valerie Separa, told our JV Coach Ken that the lights going out was in fact occured due to the widespread poweroutage accross town. Practice was over and we all went home, when I was picked up by my mom, she also informed me that the power was out. So, when we were on our way home we had to be very cautios at traffic lights because they were completely shut down. At home I tried to finish my homework before the sun went out. My mom was very worried from this incident. She was concerned because days later the date will be September 11th. She thought that the power outage may have been done intentionally and that we may all be in harms way. We were also very anxious to see if we had school the next day. Luckily, we had a battery operated radio that told us that the power was soon to be back on and that there was no school the following day. My little brother and mom was very excited to hear about that, considering my mom is an elementary school teacher. Before we went to sleep, our family decided to say a prayer to look after us during this time. During this time me and my uncle, Coach Fran Taitague (Varsity Defensive Football Coach) was concerned wondering if the football and volleyball games were going to still be on because of the power outage. Luckily, the next day the games were back on and we got our power on the following day. To my suprise, I missed technology and had a pretty boring night.

This incident made me realize that we rely on technology and electricity a little too much. It is such a dramatic change from before when I was younger. I used to play outside everyday, in fact thats all i ever did was be outside. It was a crime for me to want to stay inside. My grandmother stated, "For the first time in a long time, I saw kids playing on my street, there are children on my street that I have never even seen in my life". This was my true epiphany that i had this day.