Essay 11 A Heartbroken Experience

On May 12, 2008, a huge disaster happened in China which touched the hearts of all Chinese people. It was a strong earthquake struck Wenchuan, Sichuan Province. Everything there was damaged and numerous people were dead in such unpredictablely natural disaster. During those days, TV and Internet were covered by the news about Wenchuan earthquake and news spread over every corner of China. What people most focused on was the earthquake. The earthquake was so strong that less people in disaster-stricken area survived and all buildings were in ruins at one night. Therefore, it was unable for rescue team driving into the area to search and rescue survivors. The only way was taking helicopter. However, many rescuers were dead of aftershock which made the tragedy worse. From the TV, I saw the city was covered by numerous bodies and some survivors were looking for their family with crying and shouting. They tried to dig their family’s body out with blooding hands. At that moment, I believe they couldn’t feel any hurt and the only thing they kept thinking about was finding their family.

I couldn’t remember how many times I cried as I watching TV and hearing news from internet. I couldn’t control myself to stop crying. There was a little story which moved me a lot and made me cried badly. She was a new mom whose little girl was only 6 months big. When the rescue team found her body, they were shocked because the baby was still alive. It was obvious that she bent her body over her kid and kept this position all the time but nobody would know how long she kept being like this. As rescuer pulled the baby out, they found a cell phone in the blanket. There was a short text, “my dear, please remember that mom loves you forever.” As I saw this, tears run out from my eyes and I moved by such great love from a mom. The rescue team searched survivors for many days but what they pulled out from the ruin were dead bodies. Wenchuan became a city full of bodies and misery from a beautiful scenic spot. During that period, what I did mostly when I was free was watching news from TV, reading information on the Internet and newspapers. I kept asking myself, “What can I do for them?” I donated money as most people did but I knew only donating money was not enough because money wouldn’t solve everything, especially for those people who lost family. But I couldn’t do anything except donating. At that moment, I wish I was a millionaire then I could help those people who lost home as much as possible.

From this poignant disaster, what I saw was not only the misery but also how clannish Chinese are. Lots of people would like to be volunteers and donate blood. I was shocked by the news that the blood bank had enough blood and couldn’t accept more after the first day asking for flesh blood. There was a saying that blood is thicker than water. And Chinese people proved this for everybody all over the world. Though the earthquake was merciless, people in every corner of my country were all eager to give a helping hand. It held all Chinese together and I strongly believe that Chinese people are able to conquer all difficulties in the future no matter how big they will be.