The Camp Fire Tragedy

I woke up on the morning of November 8 with one thing on my mind, my anthropology quiz that I did not study for, that was the only thing that I was worry about at the moment. But then everything changed when my roommate told me about the fire in Paradise and the shooting in Thousand Oaks. My hometown is about a twenty minute drive from Thousand Oaks, it really hit close to home. I have friends who attend Cal Lutheran University, where  multiple students from there were shot and killed. At that moment I was just worried about the tragedy in Thousand Oaks and how my family and friends were handling it. Although I did know about the fire in paradise I was not really worry about it. About a year ago my hometown, Ventura California, was struck with the Thomas fire, which is one of the largest wildfire in California’s history. My family and I were force to evacuate while the mountains in front of our home were on fire. Because of my previous experience with the Thomas Fire I was surprisingly calm because I knew what to do just in case we had to evacuate. I went to lunch with a friend that day and it was really dark outside, although it was only noon. The sky was kind of purple and you could smell the smoke, but I still remained calm. I walked to campus like any normal day not really thinking about the fire but the quiz I was about to fail. But when I got to class everything changed, my professor and her TAs were talking about the fire and how fast it was spreading. They also talked about how some roads were being closed, at that moment I knew that this was a big deal and I started to worry. My roommates also started to text me, they were starting to freak out and wanting to evacuate.  Then I started to worry if we were to evacuate I would not have anywhere to go, I live like nine hours from Chico, and I do not have a car. We took the quiz in class and we were excuse from our lab which is usually three hours long, that day we were there for like forty minutes. I got back to my dorm and my roommate told me to pack a bag , her mom was picking us up. Then we got a text message from the school that classes were cancelled for that Friday, I just thought we were going to have a four day weekend, it never crossed my mind that we would have two weeks off. I ended up staying at my roommates house the whole weekend and flew home Monday November 12. Back home my family and I would watch the news and see the numbers of deaths and missing people go up everyday. I felt devastated and helpless, I was back home happy to see my family and friends. Planning Friendsgiving dinners and Thanksgiving dinners while the people from Paradise had no home to spent Thanksgiving in or worse no family to spent it with, that truly broke my heart. Although I only lived in Chico for about four months I know that the people here are generous and courageous people. During this time all communities came together to help the vitamins of this tragedy, and that is what makes Chico such a beautiful place.