Water’s Flowing
Marietta, GA
2024, Junior, Creative Writing
It was like a sudden nightmare. For many, a divine condemnation, a non-traditional discovery. One day, people were having dinners and lunches with their families, playing with their dogs, and enjoying themselves in the middle of the streets. And the next, they were desperate for help as the floodwaters rose higher and higher.
What I once knew as my home, my comfort, was destroyed. Even with an overwhelming pain in my heart, I was one of the thousands of people who left their homes over the course of the days. It was painful, but what could anyone do in the midst of a tragedy?
It started with an unusual downpour, filling the river more than usual. Everyone thought that it would soon pass and that nothing bad would happen. But one truth that many of us refuse to accept is that nature has always been and always will be unpredictable. A consequence of the damage that many have caused. Soon, the floods began, destroying houses one by one, closing the stores my friends loved to go to, and waking me up from my most innocent and sincere dreams.
We were lucky to be able to walk the streets when there was still time. Even though the water was up to my knees, and my father had to calm me down in the midst of my worries. It was lucky, because later on, the devastation was such that boats had to be used, and what had once been an independent escape became an endless series of rescues. An endless series of questions about why people had to be going through this, a complete indignation.
I was mentally in a loop of questions. Whether my family and I would be okay, whether my friends were getting the same chance as me to go to a safer place, and whether the animals were being cared for too. Some considered it silly to worry about animals in the middle of a catastrophe, but it wasn’t their fault. Who was responsible? Of course it wasn’t the nature itself. Nature just desires to follow its own course. But us, people, with its devasting nature, thinking only about winning benefits advantages in their favor to enrich themselves, even at the cost of their own lives or those of others. Like a river, diverting from its course because it has nowhere else to run, flooding forests, and seeking to continue its course whatever the cost. Nature charges, man suffers, animals die, fish can’t survive, and food poisons. The world is in the throes of a catastrophe dug up by men all over the planet, and few people are fighting against time to help those who have been hurt. Most people disdain to talk about politics, but it starts from our earliest years, when respect comes first. And since we are disrespecting nature, I think, what will become of future generations? What they will reap. Man wants to robotize life on planet earth, but he forgets that robots depend on the human mind. In the future, will artificial intelligence override man with reason, dignity, character and mutual respect? Thoughts like these were running around my mind, making me drown in a ocean of questions and answers, who I didn’t knew if were right or not.
The days after the first one were long. Every day, we received news of people who had disappeared, or of more people who had to leave their homes and seek shelter elsewhere. Books, which I loved so much, were underwater, destroyed. Children lost their beloved toys, and even souls were lost in the confusion.
Every day, everything seemed to get worse instead of better. As I hugged my knees on the floor of a shelter, I heard other desperate people arriving. Confused faces looking for family members, others looking for any cloth that could be used as clothing instead of wet rags, and most importantly: the search for a solution.
And the search for a solution made me think, why not before? Everyone knew about climate change; everyone knew it was a risk. But did blindness make us delay anything that could have been done to help? Or was there no solution at all?
While everyone was racing against time for a solution now, I could only think of the more than 2 million people who suffered from the floods and losses in those days.
Works Cited
2024 Rio Grande do Sul floods – Wikipedia
Brazil floods: Hundreds of Rio Grande do Sul towns under water (bbc.com)
Rio Grande do Sul Tragedy Results in Largest Displacement of Homes in Brazil in Three Decades – 13/05/2024 – Brazil – Folha (uol.com.br)
Tragédia no Rio Grande do Sul: é preciso apontar as causas e | Opinião (brasildefato.com.br)
Rio Grande do Sul: tragédia era mais do que anunciada, mas alerta foi ignorado (apublica.org)
Reflection
Reflection
I thought a lot about what I would like to be writing about, and I realized that writing about what has happened recently in my home country would be great. I have always been interested in writing, but not just because I enjoy it. Everything I have written to date has been with the intention of passing on messages that would be useful in some way. What I would like to get across with what I have written today is that we should be trying to think more about our actions against nature and against ourselves. A conscious act of help and respect for our surroundings can mean a lot in the future, for generations to come. My work is a demonstration not only of my concern about the climate and disasters, but a demonstration of the concern of a few people around the world. I'm very grateful for the opportunity to participate. I could see that, like me, there are people who are trying to contribute to the good, even with small gestures. What I feel now is a pure and gratifying feeling. I hope that one day, everyone will be able to experience it.