Most people know about the recent situation in the Southwest United States and Northern Mexico where 5 million people were without power for about a day. The reason is simple human error, and as the saying goes “we all make mistakes.” However it’s unfortunate that in this case that mistake caused a lot of concern and stress for quite a few people. Thousands of people stuck on freeways or at intersections where the lights created chaos for drivers. Each one of the four sides of the intersection thinking in their head “doesn’t anyone in California know how to drive?” And every person behind them thinking the same thing, not to mention people sitting at home thinking “well I don’t feel bad for them, nobody in California knows how to drive.” Some people getting text messages from their family members seeing if they are in the same situation, going over the coincidental time frame in their head that America is about to recognize the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and the idea of a terrorist threat is looming in their mind. Others found the peace and calm in these few hours of darkness.
I got home from lunch around 3 in the afternoon and decided to take a nap before my 6 o’clock Sports Broadcasting class. Expecting my alarm to break up my silent slumber, I woke to my mom storming in my room saying “Well lucky you, looks like you don’t have class tonight.” Completely confused by this and still half asleep, I grumbled “What!?” She explained what was going on and that no one was supposed to be on the road if they didn’t have to, and we’d all just have to wait it out. It was somewhat surreal thinking that when I had closed my eyes just two hours earlier everything was normal and now a few million people all around me were without the thing they depended so heavily on every single day…..power. Well I had nowhere to be so my parents and I lit candles all throughout the house, my mom grilled some chicken breasts and bratwurst, and my family enjoyed a rare dinner together at the table in our Southern California backyard as the sun was setting.
As it started to grow darker we were trying to find things to entertain ourselves with. My dad and I played Monopoly which only entertained us for about an hour or so before I loaded my properties with little green houses and took all of my dad’s fake money. After that my brother and his fiance showed up at our house and we all enjoyed each other’s company under the moonlit night. We were all waiting for the power to turn back on, but were really thinking that we didn’t mind if it took a while. We were making the best of the situation knowing that a high percentage of people were freaking out about not having things like TV and internet for a whole 12 hours. Most of those people headed back to work the next day thinking what a burden it was that they had to live in darkness for half a day, and I woke up being grateful that we have such technology that we take for granted so often. And all it took was an innocent mistake by some guy in Arizona to make me realize it.