Submitted by Sarah Zuk on the 2018 winter session program in Hawaii sponsored by the Department of Biological Sciences…
My second week in Oahu ended with an unexpected scare. On Saturday morning, I planned to wake up and do my laundry. On the way out the door, my roommates screamed for me and told me about the alert sent to all of our phones: “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.” At first, I decided the only thing I needed was myself. I threw my laundry aside and was ready to go before I saw my roommates were gathering their things. At that moment, I realized that if we were to survive this ballistic missile somehow, we would need the essentials in our shelter. I quickly gathered as much food and water as possible, as well as my computer, chargers and my ukulele. I don’t recall calling my roommates, but they later said I told them to also gather as much food as possible. We ran out the door and quickly searched for shelter. When we came to the hotel lobby, it was flooded with people also looking for somewhere to go. I messaged my family in fear that it might be my last moments to ever speak to them, and also google searched bomb shelters near me. Unfortunately, the only results came with homeless shelters, and after asking my professor, he confirmed that there was no real place that everyone could go to seek satisfactory shelter. We ran to the bottom of the concrete stairwell in the hotel parking lot because it provided the most shelter near us. I could not stop thinking about the words from the emergency alert, eerily similar to those said on December 7th, 1941 at Pearl Harbor. After about 40 minutes, we were given confirmation that the message was a mistake. I feel extremely lucky and fortunate to have survived.
The event felt very real and made me reflect. Only about a week earlier, I had visited Pearl Harbor and learned about the events that day in much more depth than I had previously known. On our excursion, we learned about how America was prepared for attacks on the land and sea. We took a gorgeous horse ride through Kualoa Ranch and saw the many stations built to prepare for land attacks. We also hiked Diamond Head, a beautiful trail that leads to the stations built for attacking ships at sea. Unfortunately, the Americans were not prepared for the unexpected air attacks at Pearl Harbor, leading to such an infamous day. While I studied abroad in Japan, I made a day trip to Hiroshima. I traveled to the peace memorial and museum in the newly built city. I couldn’t help, but think of how I could have been in a similar situation to the citizens of Hiroshima when the atomic bomb caused such great devastation. The effects not only on the people, but also the environment were horrific and still affect Hiroshima to this day. I cannot imagine something similar happening in Hawaii. I hope that our nations can remain peaceful to ensure that events similar to those in Hiroshima and Pearl Harbor will not occur again.
On a lighter note, I was very glad to have been able to explore and learn more on Oahu this past week. On Tuesday, my class went on a boat excursion to go snorkeling in larger reefs to examine the marine life. In 60 ft deep waters, I saw much more diverse life than on the shallower reefs we had previously explored. I was very excited to swim with a few sea turtles there! I, also, have come to appreciate all life on the reefs. Many times it is easy to overlook the tiny, less colorful fish. When I stay still while snorkeling and wait to see more, a number of fish in hiding will emerge from within the coral. I am amazed at how much more diversity I will see by doing this and excited to see more marine life. I had a similar experience later in the week for our tide pool excursions. My professor brought us to many tide pools and told us to look around and wait for the life to come out from hiding. Most of the marine life will think that humans are a predator, so waiting is essential to see life. I was excited to see life emerge from the reef, including crabs and many more fish. I think it’s important to not only appreciate the big things in life, but also the smaller and sometimes hidden wonders.
