I wanted to write and publish a post last week, but something bad happened.
We had, inadvertently, driven into a flooded area.
A stormy night. Low visibility. No lights on the exit. Only a police car, just sitting on the shoulder. We weren’t from this area.
By the time I noticed only the roof of the car ahead of us wasn’t covered by water, it was too late. We’d already hit the water. The car wasn’t all-wheel-drive. Water began seeping in through the front of the car, and soaked the floormats. He called 911 while I used my phone’s flashlight to signal a group of firefighters, chest-deep in water, about 200 feet away.
They came and told us to only take what we needed, so I took my backpack with my relatively new backpack and my phone. All of the other stuff I wanted to bring — a coffee grinder with a bunch of coffee beans, an old Macbook, my clothes, my wallet, my planner — I had to leave in the car until when the car could get towed. My boyfriend, however, lost a lot more — the car was his.
By the time I called my parents to let them know what happened, the roof of our car, too, was the only visible part. The police car finally blocked the exit, and the cop shouted at someone trying to go on the exit, saving them from ruin.
Only if that was the case ten minutes earlier.
My body shivered, with just a windbreaker to keep me warm, as we walked back up the exit to get into the cop’s car. We got dropped off at a Walmart to get spare clothes and an umbrella and then walked over to a nearby hotel to keep warm.
An old friend of ours picked us up past midnight. We got back home to our parents’ houses at 3 in the morning.
loss
We went back to the tow lot the afternoon after. They towed our car around 4 in the morning; we drove into the flood around 8:20 pm the night before.
It was a mess. When we opened the doors, more water came out. When we opened the hood, there was sediment everywhere.
For me, the loss was minimal at first glance. The coffee grinder did not survive; I wouldn’t want to try cleaning or repairing its components. Most of the coffee beans did though; and here I was wishing, a few days before we went on the trip, that the roaster kept their nicer paper packaging for them from a few years prior.
The Macbook belonged to my parents, and I wanted to return it to them since I got a laptop. It miraculously survived after drying out in the oven and dehydrator for a couple of days. My clothes were fine, and my planner, though now wrinkly, survived without any terrible amount of inkbleed.
It was when I came back down that I realized that my new laptop no longer was able to charge. Though the laptop was working fine, when I went to charge it, it wouldn’t. I was hoping that it was the power adapter, but when I plugged the power adapter into the laptop’s pen, it would charge (both charge using USB-C). The charging port itself was messed up. And there was no way for me to open up the case. I didn’t have the special bit for the screwdriver to open it.
While we ended up getting a replacement laptop (my Lenovo, and his Macbook and iPad), we were still saddened at the loss.
When we drove away from the tow lot with what we could salvage, we noticed that there was a stream right at the bottom of the exit. No wonder.
for him
The loss of the car was a serious issue. Ironically, in 2023, around the same week in January, he got that car since his old one got into an accident.
I want to help all that I can, but I only came down here to make enough money to cover tuition and other basic living expenses. We couldn’t foresee this happening. It was terrible luck. We’d been so diligent while driving in the storm to make sure we wouldn’t hit any puddles, only to end up in a flood.
It was frustrating. I honestly was not fazed by the fact that we could potentially drown and risk losing more if we didn’t call for help the second we figured we couldn’t drive in reverse.
All we could think about was, “If only I noticed two seconds earlier. If only we didn’t decide to go to that gas station off the exit. If only there were lights. If only the police car was blocking the exit entirely. If only we didn’t have to go to the bathroom.”
And what was next, after we lost a lot of the things that we needed to do our work? We had money saved up so it was okay, but it was a huge blow.
Sigh.
flung out
The boba company we work at had a sudden managerial shift at the beginning of the year. Someone has to fill in the gap when someone goes.
It could’ve all been avoidable if the red flags had been seen earlier along. If we’d communicated better. A new company has to learn those sorts of things but at the same time, when those flags have been waving proudly in the wind for so long, you wonder, “Why didn’t we do anything then?”.
new priorities
During my time here for the past six months, I’ve gotten to know more wonderful people. It made me remember why I stayed with the company for a while back when I first started working. People really make a place. I didn’t understand that back in high school. I didn’t understand that when I began writing Saviors. People enrich the place you are in. I thought I could get away with just writing a book with so little interpersonal aspects to it. Yet, that’s what I loved about them to begin with: the bonds in between fictional people.
I’m considering extended my term break at WGU for another month since I’m going to be trained on baking — my capstone revolved around the logistics of that, and I see this as a great opportunity to help them grow by being able to bake, and to help by being able to automate such an arduous task of planning deliveries and determining demand for each store.
I have a basic understanding of what the work entails (for both the capstone and work itself), but I sought to learn more about how the baking experience is, for the workers, and the details about baking that aren’t necessarily communicable, but rather must be felt or just come to know.
accepting myself
Time after time, I kept telling myself that the best way to go about life was to pick a path and stick to it the best you could.
However, I forgot that I could pave my own path. As someone that simply likes to make things, there’s a lot of things that could be made: meals, drinks, baked goods, a tune, a song, art on the screen or on paper, personal care goods, home remedies, jewelry, furniture, electronic trinkets… and even programs and websites from code.
There’s not enough time in the day to do all of that, of course. But what if I could combine some of those things together? I think that’s where I will find the most fulfillment. My mind has always operated in that fashion: “What can I fuse together?”
It’s a path that has more resistance, but I also love to go against the grain. I like to face challenges, because you won’t be the same person after it.
another chart of course
A few days have passed since I began writing this. I believe I will be going through with the term break extension in order to get a better understanding of the baking process and have more time to go through the course of study on Codecademy. It’ll give me a chance to earn a little bit more money before I focus on the capstone.
Even with these setbacks, I have a feeling that this year will be fruitful, but you know, it’s never without the labor.
I’ll just have to go at my own pace.
