The last thing you remember before you die is probably the most important thing you can think of. Or of what you regret. The mind seems to work that way, casting away out all the good times so it can make room for the bad. I think that’s what everyone means when they say your life flashes before your eyes. You see all the things you did and wish you could redo most of them. For the people who say they wouldn’t change a bit in their lives, they are lying. Trust me, I’m dead.

The morning of the whole “I’m going to die” thing happened it was like any normal day. I woke up, ate breakfast with my mom, dad, and two younger brothers, got ready for school, kissed my mom on the cheek and set out the door for school.

Outside it was a beautiful day. The sky was clear blue and there wasn’t a speck of cloud which was odd in my town. The problem that day wasn’t in the sky, it was in the ground. Little did I know that horror was about to crash down all around me. As I took one last look at the strange sky, the ground began to screech. It was wriggling and bucking like it was one of those untamed horses you see in a rodeo, and boy was this buck mad. I lost my footing and crash- landed into a fire hydrant, knocking the breath out of me. I laid there on the ground, feeling it move beneath me. Off in the distance, I heard people shrieking, cars crashing and thunder, loud thunder. I had no clue it was the ground itself, perhaps laughing at our helplessness against its destruction. All I could think was that this was it. The world was going to end and I was going to die. I pulled myself into a helpless little ball and began to cry, hoping for the mayhem to end soon so I wouldn’t have to hear all the screaming and terror.
Finally, it was over. Let me tell you, nothing could have been quieter than the silence that followed. Regaining my breath, I got up and ran. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I hoped and prayed that my brothers, mom and dad were all alright. I ran past cars crunched into unrecognizable clumps of nothing with faint cries of help getting even fainter each second they were in there. I past buildings now laying rumpled in a heap of garbage. It took me five minutes to realize one of the heaps of garbage was my own home. Every last thing was destroyed. There were no more front doors, no more warm kitchen to eat breakfast in, and the worst thing was, there was no more sign of my parents or brothers.

Dropping to the ground I beat my fists over and over on the ground. Why had it chosen my home to take? My whole town to destroy? Why? I sat there bawling my eyes for a while out before I felt the tinge of coldness crawling up my whole leg, stopping just below my hip: water. Slowly, I stood up, Waves as giant as my house crashed into the shore, bringing the water around me higher. With one last tear-filled look at my lost house and lost family, I began to run again, this time away from the shore.

The people who survived the earthquake were now running in the same direction as me. They pushed and pulled me so they could get ahead to save themselves. In desperation, I pushed and shoved against everyone else, but they were stronger. The water now was at my chest and it was got harder and harder to run. Finally, with one last giant wave I was submerged. A whirlpool of currents dragged me under water and kept me there. Pushing and kicking I tried to swim towards the surface. I was running out of air and needed to get more, but the cruel waves just kept pulling me under. With one last look up to the still clear blue skies, I let them take over my body. They beat me up against cars and debris from the earthquake. Slowly, I found it harder and harder to keep my eyes open.

When you’re seconds from death, what do you do? Do you try and revive yourself although you know nothing will happen? Do you think about your life? For me, I thought. I imagined myself back with my mom, dad, and two younger brothers. We were all smiling and laughing and hugging each other. Before you leave life forever, you feel what you’re feeling and it’s the last thing you ever remember. I felt love and with the last of my energy I formed my lips into a faint smile and was gone.

I rose up into the sky and looked at the disaster that had happened to my small town near the sea side. I felt a faint pang of grief for everyone I knew. Then I was back with my parents and my brothers again and I felt the happiness and love I had felt before. Only this time, it was real.