Graduation Day | Teen Ink

Graduation Day

April 17, 2015
By Anonymous

The piercing sound of my alarm clock jarred me awake.  The neon green LED numbers flashed 7:15.  It was a cloudy and blustery morning, and any other day I would have waited until the last possible moment to get up and get ready for school, but today was not like any other day.  Today was the day that I finally graduated from high school.  I raced down the cold steps into the kitchen, where I found the breakfast my father had prepared.  I ate quickly and raced to dress myself, and after about 10 minutes of making myself presentable, I ran out the door.
The cold and unusually windy day wasn’t able put a damper on my excitement. I ran outside and started my car and floored it down the eerily quiet street.  Pulling into the school parking lot, the weather station interrupted my radio station, saying there are tornado warnings for the following counties, and that’s when I turned off the radio, knowing that tornados hardly ever hit my area.  Running into the school, I was met by my friends.  The strange feeling of sorrow hit me like a truck, knowing I could never see a lot of these people ever again.  The feelings of grief quickly dissipated after realizing that once today ended, I would never go to high school again. 
The school holds the graduation ceremony outside of the school every year, and today it was decided that the ceremony would be short and quick since the wind seemed to be picking up, and it seemed to be getting cooler.  After the principal finished talking, and students completed their speeches, the students threw up their caps, and they were quickly blown away by the strong breeze.
The blasting sound of sirens sounded in the distance, just as the caps were throw, warning everyone to take shelter immediately.  I couldn’t stop thinking about the weather alert that interrupted my radio station, and I started regretting not listening.  Everyone quickly rushed inside, but before everyone could get in, it happened.  A massive tornado touched down not even a mile from the school.  The only thing that could be heard now was frantic screams, and the sound of horrified students rushing into the school.
All of the students were ordered to the gym locker rooms, since they were made completely out of concrete.  The locker rooms area supposed to be the safest place in the school in the event of a tornado, and we hoped that it would be enough to protect us from the extreme weather.  The students and staff filed into the locker room, and as we got deeper into the locker room, the stench of body odor and sweat seemed to increase as well.  Students lined the walls of the locker room with their head tucked between their legs.  The sound of the tornado destroying the other end of the school was deafening, and seemed to be getting louder and the tornado got closer.  It’s uncommon for people to feel like their life could literally end in a matter of minutes or seconds, but everyone knew that if the locker rooms couldn’t stand the extreme winds and flying debris, our lives could be over.  We could hear the loud crashing of the tornado as it got closer and closer to our small crowded cement room.  At this point, everyone had their heads down, and was praying to God that we would make it out of this alive.
  That’s when the tornado could be felt directly above us, and the horrible sound of the roof of the locker room being ripped off could be heard.  In a matter of seconds, the roof flew right off of our small cement safe haven.  The screams of my classmates and teachers was unbearable, as they were sucked up into the raging spiral of air.  Hanging onto the poorly welded gym locker, I felt my limbs being ripped from their sockets.  As I screamed out in agony, I gripped the locker with all my might, and looked up to see several students, and the principal of the high school, lifted into the furious tornado.  That was when I realized I wouldn’t survive.  I thought of my family, and how they would take the news of my death.  I also thought of my friends, so excited for graduation only an hour ago, and now their life was on the line.
Against all odds, I must have somehow survived that horrible experience, because I woke up in a hospital bed, surrounded by family and friends.  They hugged me and showered me with gifts and cards, and even though I really appreciated it, something felt wrong.  I finally realized, someone was missing from the people gathered around me, my mother.  She was the principal of my high school, and my stomach felt like a knot.  The worst feeling in the world, was knowing that the last memory I would have of my mother, was the sight of her being ripped from the locker room, into the massive cyclone.



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