Narrative ( Never give up)

Never Give Up

            August 19^th is a very important date to me; it has been ever since I was born, considering it’s my date of birth. On August 19, 2007 my birthday was the least of my concerns. I had been awoken by the towns’ siren, from instinct I knew that sirens never meant a good thing. Soon after I would find out that the date would change meaning to me, but also be remembered by several people. August 19, 2007 changed a lot of lives including those of my close friends and family.

            For the night of my birthday it was always routine to spend it with my dad at his house in Rushford MN.  As I sat in my dads living room he watched the news, giving that I didn’t really care for watching the news I was off playing games with my little sister. The voice of the weatherman was faint; it was the least of my concerns. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the rapid light flicker from the television screen. As I continued on concentrating on what move to make next on the board game my phone rings, its my mom.

“Hello, Krista are you safe?” she asked.

I replied, ”yes, why?”

My mom than continued to explain that my home town Houston MN, had been asked to evacuate the town due to the rapid level increase from the water of the Root River, in fear that it might reach the limit height that the dike can hold and wipe out the hole town. At this point I was really confused since I didn’t think much about the rain, I mean its Minnesota it rains all the time. Scared from the news that I had received I asked my dad where we should go to be safe, he explained to me that he lives on high ground and we wouldn’t have to worry about a thing. This calmed me down, and I just decided to call it a night, and soon fell asleep.

            Around 5 a.m. I was abruptly woken along with my dad from the loud roar of the towns’ siren. Terrified we both franticly went for our phones, the home phone along with my cell phones lines where so blocked up from the hundreds of people trying to use them at once that we couldn’t get a single phone call out. Both of us by this time are in a panic, all we can think about is our families, and if they are safe. Soon enough we are running out to the car to go check on my grandparents. We where in such a rush I doubt we even put our seat belts on. At this point I don’t know what to feel, the adrenaline, the fear, or the curiosity of what was going on inside the town of Rushford. As we raced into town there were several people racing out of town, giving me a sense of feeling that this was probably a bad idea. As we approached town we couldn’t see anything but water, what used to be a town now looked like a giant lake, only the roofs of the trailer houses where visible. The house that I used to go to for daycare when I was young was completely submerged under the mucky water, along with the main road into the town.

This was the main street (by bank)

There was no way of getting to my grandparents house the short way, so we had to turn around and take a bunch of back roads in hopes that they where not submerged under water. Luckily they where clear enough for us to get threw. As we arrived to my grandparents we noticed that the water was literally three inches from their back door, my grandpa had place many sand bags around the door blocking off the water. My grandparents lived in the perfect location; all the houses and businesses below them where completely flooded and ruined, as for the houses above theirs had been completely demolished from a mudslide. Seeing someone’s house broken and collapsed with its pieces scattered all around their yards and the road made me feel heartbroken. My grandparents where lucky to have a house to go back to unlike many others who lived in Rushford.

As I walked down one of the only streets that had not been filled with water I saw many mothers, fathers, children, and even old friends carrying the few things that they where able to get out of their houses. The streets where filled with people but yet silent, everyone was in complete shock, and no one had a clue on what to do. There where cops in boats going around house to house spray painting red “X’s” on the houses doors that had been considered unsafe to return too. My aunt and cousins where one of those houses with the red “X” they didn’t have a house to return to, they lived in the lowest area of Rushford and had lost everything but the clothes on there backs. By being in the center of this horrific situation so unexpectedly changed me and made me look at life in a different way. I began to see how lucky I was compared to a lot of people who had lost almost everything.

Big pile of trash from the houses that got flooded

As more and more people began to hear of what had happened to Rushford numerous amounts of people fled to help everyone they could. They brought in cleaning supplies, food, clothes, and shelter. FEMA along with Red Cross also provided temporary homes, and house supplies for those in need, to help them get a new head start. The workers and people of Rushford had no way of getting supplies of food unless it was brought in because the grocery store along with the gas stations had all been flooded as well.  From all of the water it was causing a lot of mold and bacteria to form inside people’s houses, because of this everyone was wearing masks. As the waters went down and people where let into there homes everyone pitched in to help clean, along with myself, and believe me those masks and bleach where every ones new best friends for several weeks. It was heartbreaking to see everyone completely gutting out their houses all the way from beds, fridges, baby toys, and even pictures that had been destroyed. Knowing that everything of mine was still safe was a relief for two reasons, I was able to donate several of my belongings to people that needed them more than me, and for the fact that I could help out in such a way.

This experience changed me in a good way it made me realize how much people needed my help and how thank full everyone was for the help that I could give them. Many of my family members and I will never forget August 19, 2007. This day changed a lot of peoples’ lives. This natural disaster came to surprise everyone in Rushford and Houston. This experience showed me that things happen unexpectedly and you have to react fast, even come out of your comfort zone to help strangers in need. Now as you drive threw Rushford I guarantee you will see a couple bumper stickers or signs with the saying “never give up”, this is in remembrance of how no one gave up on August 19, 2007.

Conserving

            We have all heard this many times before college students are always broke. Our families were always telling us as we grew up to start saving now. Did we listen? Of course not, it obviously went in one ear and out the other. So here we are at college enjoying our freedom and that first electric bill rolls around, your jaw immediately drops to the floor. What to do know? I know the first thing I would do is call my mom, but that fails all she has to say is I told you so, or barks off a list of things I can do for her. WOOHOO! A chore that’s exactly what I want to do, NOT! So now what? Well there are several things you can do to save the money you do have so that this does not happen again, and you can stay independent.

            So time to save some cash, first thing first, buy the cheap stuff! Go generic, you’re in college you don’t need top of the line shampoo, food, or even alcohol (for those partiers). Also you can limit the amount you eat out, or go out. Secondly, take all your change, like pennies, quarters, and such and hide them in some kind of container, and when it’s full take it to the bank. You will be surprised on how loose change can accumulate.  Another way you can save is to go to the five-dollar movie bin at good ol’ Wal Mart instead of going out to a movie. Movie theaters are insanely expensive and I’m sure you will all agree with me. Yeah most of the movies in the five-dollar bin are lame, but sometimes you can score big! So why not try it. You can also do many things around your place of living to conserve some cash too!

            Cleaning supplies, towels, or even kitchen wear can all be found at the Dollar Store for only a dollar!  Instead of going to Wal Mart and spending three bucks on a cleaner go to the Dollar Store and save your self two bucks. Also I’m sure you have heard this before but I’m going to use it as one of my examples, TURN OFF THE LIGHTS! Seriously it works, but what if you have lazy pesky roommates that don’t know how to turn a light off, buy sticky notes and post reminders for them, sounds nerdy, but I actually did this and it worked! Also you could find a night of the week when all your roommates are home and make a large dinner for everyone and rotate every week on who buys the ingredients. You will get a couple free meals this way. Another thing that you can do is instead of watching a movie at night on the TV. slip a DVD. into your computer, it saves more electricity.

            So here is the tricky part, you all know of several ways to save your money, but will we really do it all the time?  Probably not because we are the typical lazy college students, but you can try to for starters and maybe sooner than later it will become a habit of living, like everything else it takes a while to get use to change. 

Tinker School

“We start with doodles and sketches and sometimes we make real plans and sometimes we just start building.” Stated Gever Tulley. I agree completely with this statement, because for one it’s completely true in my opinion. We always start off with just a doodle or a sketch before we get a complete idea or object out of something. You have to start somewhere for basically anything we do. I am a hands on learner, my favorite classes where actually wood shop and art.  Too me it seems like school systems are mostly concerned on students being book smart. In the real world you need a lot more than knowing how to find information from a book. Having the ability to use all parts of your brain and achieve thinking skills and problem solving for everyday tasks is more important to me. You are only in school for a short period of your life, after that you will need more of those skills that are showed in the video then ever before. This school not only allows kids to seek out that part of their brain, but it also shows them what they are capable of achieving.

Some of those objects those kids created where amazing, I would say that I doubt I could do that, but yet again I have never tried. Anything is possible if you put your mind and knowledge into it. For some reason this reminds me of those TV shows where people who are very wealthy come to a problem some time in their lives and don’t know how to solve it because everything is always done for them.  They have no clue on how to go about doing something that is an every day task for the bigger portion of the population. For example cleaning or organization believe it or not there are people out there that have never had to clean or cook for themselves. Based on my opinion this is horrible, I’m someone who loves being able to do things on my own with out having to have someone always do it for me.

 Gever Tulleys video inspired me, I share the same opinions as him on things, kids should have the ability to create things on there own by putting out a plan by using there imagination. Schools theses days don’t exactly let you do that, yes being book smart is very important but so is having the skills to be able to achieve things on your own and being hands on. Life is all about being hands on and getting things done. I do think that schools should stress this learning system more. Everyone learns in different ways. I just so happen to be one of those students that learns better when I am actually put in a situation where I need to use my thinking skills and my hands. Others who are better at learning from reading things could or couldn’t excel from this as well. For example having to read the directions of something or create the directions for something may come easy to them because it involves reading, but it might not as well. Either way I think this learning system is amazing it allows kids to know how they learn best. It can even put a “fun” spin on their learning experience.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/gever_tulley_s_tinkering_school_in_action.html

Weekends

One thing just about anyone looks forward to would be the weekend, but why?  The weekend is a time when most people get to relax, see friends, or do what ever else is on their agenda. Well, I lucked out this weekend because I got an amazingly long four-day weekend. Reason number one, I don’t have class on Fridays and reason number two is for the fact that every Monday of the first week in September is Labor Day. On Labor Day my family usual gets together for a one last camping hoorah, but not this year! Thanks to the vast change in weather it was just a tad to cold to sit around a campfire in the middle of nowhere. 

So here I am with a whole four-day weekend, and nothing planed. Soon I remembered that it was my best friends’ birthday. Being my best friend we obviously needed to celebrate. We started off the day with going out to eat at The Olive Garden, might I add it was amazing. After that I explained that I had other things going on that night and as she thought I was ditching her on her birthday I was actually preparing a surprise birthday party for her. I won’t get into detail but it was a successful surprise.

Justine(birthday girl), cat, and obviously me

As for the rest of my weekend it was mostly about making money and relaxation. Saturday I had to work. I work at a local bar and grill as a bartender. As I was working a large bachelorette part bus stopped in things got crazy, along the lines of having to bust a few minors, and break up a bar fight. I honestly was scared being as small as I am there wasn’t much I could really do, but apparently I had a way with words because they ended the fight with a bear hug. Finally 4 a.m. rolled around and I had just clocked out talk about a long night.

Relaxation is key to a good weekend, usually Sundays is the day to just sit back and relax.  I spent all Sunday by eating A LOT of junk food and watching the one and only Dexter. For those who have never watch it I suggest you do, it’s the best show out there from my point of view. All in all I had a very successful four-day weekend, I achieved hanging out with friends, making some cash, and even relaxation. All that’s on my mind is waiting for 12:35 on Thursday to role around, then my weekend starts all over again.

All about me

First off my name is Krista Himlie, interesting enough people call me Krista, or Keisha, I honestly don’t know how this nickname came about its stuck with me since elementary school, but it has evolved in to a nick name that I despise, “egg bake” seriously people I don’t even like eggs, but sadly I respond to it so I guess I cant really complain. I grew up on 80 acres of farm free land in a little town called Houston, no not Texas. I work at a bar and grill, so far so good. For my 19th birthday I went to New York, unbelievably three people asked me if I was famous, along with almost being robbed, all in all it was a good birthday. To pass time I listen to a lot of music, and jot down lyrics that stand out to me. I love going to live shows or concerts, mainly rock. I have seen more bands than I can recall. The main reason I enjoy going to concerts is because it gives me an adrenaline rush, just from all of the people and how much energy there is in the crowd. From my point of view, you don’t get the full experience of it unless your right there upfront getting squashed, may be painful but so worth it. Some other things that I have interest in are; photography, travel, and being outdoors. 

I like photography because you are able to obtain memories from pictures, along with being able to go back to somthing. I mainly like taking pictures of sceneries, sunsets, animals, and concerts. Among other things I am a very outgoing person, I will talk to anyone who cares to start a conversation with me, I have been told that I’m intimidating more than once, this confuses me because if you ask me I’m nothing to be intimidated by, I mean seriously people mistaken my age for being 15 more than once a month. All in all I’m a nice person and excited to meet new people.