Defining Moment--B. Scharbor

Life is full of unexpected moments. The majority I would love to say are extremely joyous and happy moments. However, life seems to always throw us an unpredictable curve ball. These curve balls, monumental or insignificant to others, are all put in our paths for a higher and bigger reason. Whether we take the good from the bad or let it consume us, these moments define us. These defining moments can effect us as a town, a state or even a nation.
    Back in April, my town of Camden, Arkansas was devastated by an awful tornado. It did not shred the whole town, but my neighborhood was hit the most severe. I remember waking up right after the tornado tore through our neighborhood around 3:00 in the morning. I stayed up the rest of the night until daylight came through and I was able to see all the damage. My brother had a limb come through his ceiling, which caused his bedroom to flood because it was raining so hard. There was another tree that feel right outside my bedroom and barely missed it by a foot. That tree was huge and could have easily hurt me, if not kill me.  I live around a bunch of trees, and it was insane how many trees had fallen. Our neighbors had a tree fall through their home. Luckily no one was hurt. They eventually had to rebuild their house from the ground up because the damage was so bad. There was so many trees down that no one could leave or leave or come into our neighborhood because the roads were covered. I live directly behind the high school, and we found out that the roof of half of our school was torn off, the baseball field's concrete dugouts were destroyed, and out football stadium was extremely damaged. Our whole neighborhood seemed to be in distress.
    It was not long after daylight that great things started to happen. It was a true blessing to see all the people who showed up at my house that morning to check and see if we were okay and to just help with cleaning up all the damage. There was so much work that had to be done and to see other people come and help was so amazing. Since I stayed awake the whole night, I ended up taking a nap and woke up to a yard full of people helping. The American Red Cross even showed up later that afternoon and gave us sandwiches, fruit and water for lunch. We had nowhere else to go eat because the whole entire town was out of electricity, so it was a blessing to have them show up with food after working so hard.

    ​Defining moments appear in all kinds of ways: extraordinary, devastatingly, in a huge community, or just to an individual. The tornado was a big wake up call to me: it brought out the kind in so many people and showed how a town can come together to help each other out. Not only was it a defining moment for myself, but I also know my generation of people will definitely remember this happening to us and how blessed we are.