The past month has been one of the craziest of my life so far. In the blink of an eye, my entire childhood was decimated. It all started on that fateful day, Jan. 7, 2025, which will forever be remembered as the anniversary of disaster for the Palisades community.
My family and I were out of town, up in Santa Cruz taking a small vacation because we didn’t get to go on one earlier. My brother, who’s a student at Boston University, was with us for about a month. He was in the hotel on a call for a potential summer internship while my mom, my dad and I were walking around the city and exploring the quaint college town. I still remember walking around feeling guilty, as I was missing track practice when the track group chat started to blow up. I saw there was a fire in the Highlands that people were sending pictures and videos of, and I told my parents about the news. We all thought it was going to be a small fire that would get put out almost immediately, just like the fire in the Highlands on New Year’s Day.
We spent the rest of the day exploring up and down the coast while keeping our eyes on the news. Then, that night, the winds started to pick up heavily and we became more worried. I still vividly remember my family gathering around my dad’s laptop, which showed security camera footage of the hedge directly next to our house going up in flames. The camera cut out as power lines fell down, and we tried to contact local news stations or the fire department, but to no avail. We went to bed that night with the tiniest glimmer of hope, but it flickered out over the next few days as we received video coverage of our home and neighborhood. We tried to spend the last couple days of our vacation having as much fun as we could, but it was simply impossible. The life was sucked out of us.
Over a month later we found ourselves in unfamiliar homes in unfamiliar places, first in West Hollywood Hills and now in Mar Vista. We have been able to go back and view the wreckage, but it feels like you are in a war zone. The Palisades did not look like a fire swept through, it looked like a bomb had been dropped.
When you are looking through the remains, you may find a few pieces of metal from random parts of your house, but almost everything is unrecognizable and crumbles as you touch it, which I think resembles acceptance and letting go of this disaster.
That brings me to the positive side of all this, which, I know, sounds crazy. First of all, so much love and support has been provided to my family and me from many different people and groups, which really reminded us all to be grateful for what we have. I keep thinking to myself how it took an event like this to force me to realize just how lucky I was to live in the Palisades. It is paradise to others, yet I took it for granted. Above all, I think this disaster has made us all feel humility, as we are reminded of how truly fortunate we were to live and go to school in this beautiful town. That is why, even with all that has happened to me, I still say I feel fortunate.
I believe that Pali’s administration has handled this situation the best they can. Sure, there could be more information and updates, but if there is nothing to update on, then what should they say? Zoom school may feel like COVID again, and it definitely does not help with our health, but at least Pali still has its community. I am excited to go back to in-person learning, celebrate the Pali community and keep the Palisades spirit alive. I certainly am going to have a good story to tell my children one day. #PaliStrong!
Edited by Sophia Winston
