Today I
stumbled upon a video on YouTube about the tsunami in Asia in 2004. It moved me
deeply and I was nearly crying. It was put together with material that
survivors filmed during the tsunami. It also contained interviews with
survivors. When the tsunami happened in 2004 I was visiting two old friends in
Sweden and we were about to go out celebrating. We were having a drink at my friends house and we were joking around, since we hadn't seen each other for some time. My friends mum was watching the
news on TV and that’s when we saw it. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I had to sit down. We
watched the news for a while, but we still went out and had a nice night. The
events were happening so far away from cold and snowy Sweden and it was hard to
relate. It was hard to believe. It felt very unreal, like it had been a film.
Here's the first part of Tsunami - Caught On Camera.
Seeing the video got me
thinking though. It seems that when these kind of horrible things happen, it must
shake you to the core, even though you don’t notice it at the time, because still
after years and years you can remember exactly where you were, exactly what you
were doing and who you were with, when you heard about it.
I can still
clearly remember where I was when I heard that Princess Diana died. It was the
1st of October 1997 and I was 11 years old. I was visiting my friend
and we were playing in the living room. Her mum was cooking pasta and we were
always going into the kitchen to steal half-raw spaghetti from the pot. That’s
when my friend told me that Di had been killed in an accident. First I thought
she was joking, but she insisted. Then she showed me an article in the evening
news paper, and I had no choice but believe. I was shocked.
There is
also another thing that has happened during my lifetime, which has had
devastating consequences. It was the morning of September 11th 2001 and
I was at school. I was 15 years old. We had our first break and we were watching
TV in the hallway. All of a sudden the show was interrupted by an additional
news broadcast. They were showing footage of an airplane flying into a tower
and soon afterward another plane flying into another tower. A while after that
the towers collapsed. That was the only thing people were talking about at
school that day. Hell, I think that is the only thing the whole world talked
about that day.
Nevertheless
it is these kinds of things that stick with you no matter what.
Here in
Finland we are leading a fairly sheltered life. We are not in a risk zone for
disasters. We won’t have any earthquakes, tsunamis, erupting volcanoes or hurricanes.
At least it is very unlikely. We are not considered a possible target for
terrorists (except school murderers or men like Breivik). Who wants to attack Santa’s
home anyways? Certainly our government has faced criticism from south European
countries for not wanting to help them without any securities, but nobody
really sees Finland as a political threat.
What I’m
saying is that I feel very safe living in Finland. When I was watching that
video today about the tsunami, I started thinking about my travels. My
traveling has increased tremendously in the last decade and it isn’t unlikely
for me to be at one of those places when something like the tsunami or 9/11
happens. After all, I don’t plan to travel less. I will rather be traveling
more. It’s a scary thought altogether. What if a tsunami happens, when I’m in
Thailand? What if I will be in the middle of a terrorist attack? For a minute
there I almost said to myself: “I never want to travel again!” Then I got back
to my senses and realized that I could just as well be killed by an icicle just
walking out of my front door.
What I mean
is that I can’t start being scared of things that might happen, because I would
miss out on living my life and experiencing new things. Tell you the truth; I
would rather die in a tsunami in Thailand while snorkeling, than being too
scared to do things that I love. I will go when it is my time, but I will go
with a lot of amazing experiences.
Do you
remember where you were when you heard about the tsunami in Asia, or some other
disaster?
Do you have
any fears that need to be conquered?
