Marked: Fragile
I might say that the past three months have been quite destructive. Anyone at my university would likely concur as well. Thus, since my time has been diverted to finishing the school year alive (perhaps a little bit of an exaggeration :), my blog was placed on the back burner for awhile.
So begins my story. In the course of one week in May (not April), I evacuated the 40 residents of my hall at 3:30 am three times due to fire. The first fire burned an entire hall down and many residents lost all of the belongings in their rooms. The cause was deemed an equipment malfunction, which the speed of the spread of the fire corroborates. The second fire, four days later, I responded to with my fire extinguisher; it was a cardboard box filled with paper – felony arson. Don’t think I’m the hero in this, for it was a random resident who put it out seconds before I arrived. The third fire was about 19 hours later. Thankfully, a fellow resident put it out before there was extensive damage done.
Thus, staff members volunteered to keep posts at the major entrances of the building and documented every resident’s entrance time through each entire night following the last fire. Needles to say, when an outside security company was hired for the job, we were happy beyond measure. (insert shout out to my fellow staff members for all their hard work)
Bereft of flammable fun, whoever decided to torment our students turned to malicious vehicular “humor” by flattening tires in the parking lot. A friend of mine had five flat tires in the course of two weeks. I escaped only because my car had broken down on the freeway and was in the shop for two weeks . . . lucky . . . me . . .
And so, the end of the year finally rolled around with staff members eager to shed the responsibility of residents for the summer. The second to last day of move-out started off wonderfully; I had no finals and slept in. But upon my entering the office before lunch, I received the news from my supervisor that we were to begin strongly urging out residents to move out as soon as possible. UCR had received a bomb threat, police had already found two incendiary devices on campus, and as we all remembered, our building had a habit of catching on fire this year. The next two days progressed, nothing burnt down, and all residents were out of the building by 5 pm the next day; my summer began.
So begins my story. In the course of one week in May (not April), I evacuated the 40 residents of my hall at 3:30 am three times due to fire. The first fire burned an entire hall down and many residents lost all of the belongings in their rooms. The cause was deemed an equipment malfunction, which the speed of the spread of the fire corroborates. The second fire, four days later, I responded to with my fire extinguisher; it was a cardboard box filled with paper – felony arson. Don’t think I’m the hero in this, for it was a random resident who put it out seconds before I arrived. The third fire was about 19 hours later. Thankfully, a fellow resident put it out before there was extensive damage done.
Thus, staff members volunteered to keep posts at the major entrances of the building and documented every resident’s entrance time through each entire night following the last fire. Needles to say, when an outside security company was hired for the job, we were happy beyond measure. (insert shout out to my fellow staff members for all their hard work)
Bereft of flammable fun, whoever decided to torment our students turned to malicious vehicular “humor” by flattening tires in the parking lot. A friend of mine had five flat tires in the course of two weeks. I escaped only because my car had broken down on the freeway and was in the shop for two weeks . . . lucky . . . me . . .
And so, the end of the year finally rolled around with staff members eager to shed the responsibility of residents for the summer. The second to last day of move-out started off wonderfully; I had no finals and slept in. But upon my entering the office before lunch, I received the news from my supervisor that we were to begin strongly urging out residents to move out as soon as possible. UCR had received a bomb threat, police had already found two incendiary devices on campus, and as we all remembered, our building had a habit of catching on fire this year. The next two days progressed, nothing burnt down, and all residents were out of the building by 5 pm the next day; my summer began.
I must admit though, these events were not the most destructive force in my life over the past six months . . .
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Leave a comment...
posted by bellevoce | 8:26 PM
6 Comments:
Elisabeth, I'm so glad to hear that you made out your semester safe and sound to begin your summer. First its good that you made it out alive, second its good because your summer has begun.
What are you doing with your summer?
Awesome.
Also, you are a good writer.
-Mike
ps. Welcome back to the blogging community. The community has missed you.
Sheesh. That's intense. I'm glad you made it out alive, and that you're blogging again.
I'm fascinated to hear that something could be more destructive than some horrid little vandal terrorising your hall of residence!
[...i feel like i wrote my previous comment out of order]
It should have went this way:
Awesome.
What are you doing with your summer?
Very sorry to hear about the fires :(
I do hope everything looks a little better sooner than later
Greetings Marge,
Welcome back to the blogging community. I'm sorry to hear about the craziness of the past six months. It brings to mind the fact that it was an ancient Chinese curse, "May you live in exciting times."
I hope to hear in your next post what was more destructive. And I hope to hear how God will use it for great growth and ultimate blessing in your life.
AJ
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