Personal Narrative: The 2010 Earthquake In Haiti

An experience that helped shape my life is the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. When I was 9 years old, on January 12 2010, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 hit my country. This was the most life changing experience that happened to me. I was at home doing my homework, when I felt the ground start to shake. My mother and I, were the only ones home. When the stuff and the walls started shaking my mother and I began running for cover. The ground kept trembling and we were scared. Within a couple of seconds we were on the ground. I lived right in front of a university that was multiple stories high, Which resulted in most of their debris falling over unto my house. That was the last time I saw my mom. I was under the debris of my house screaming

for help. At first, I could hear my mother crying for help also, but suddenly her voice faded away and I knew she was gone.
While I was under the debris, I was praying to God that I could make it through this traumatic experience. Hours passed by, I thought an airplane had fell on top of my house. I kept praying, and finally the next morning, around 7 AM, people came to look for me. They screamed my name and I answered. Within two hours I was pulled out from under the house. I was cut on my face and I needed medical attention immediately. I went to the doctors and got stitches. When we told my dad what’s happened he wanted My brother and I to come to the states immediately because he was devastated and scared. The whole country was scared and no one slept inside of a home for a few days. The country was upside down and all we could do was pray. A few days later, I was trying to cope with the loss of my mom while looking for my passport to make arrangements to come to the states. It took us a few days to dig up my passport and other documents, but finally we found it.
Within about a week I was in Miami and began a new life. This change was challenging for me because it all happened so fast. I was at a new school, I didn’t speak English, and I was living apart from most of my family. Every time I look at the scar on my face it reminds me of this traumatic experience. This experience has helped shape my life because it taught me not to take life and the people I loved for granted. Even though I was very young, this experienced made me gain character.