The wind was so strong it blew the trees away

I've never grown up with storms. In fact, the first time I've actually experienced one was only two years ago, during my freshman year in UP, when classes were immediately cancelled, followed by a power blackout because an electric post had been knocked out. (Two years later, I would tell my friends that back home, classes were never cancelled because of storms. "Awww, kawawa naman kayo Lance," they'd say, to which I'd reply, "Not really. They were cancelled because of, uhm, bomb threats.")

So it came as a shock to me to see outside my window in Room 125 the wind howling with such a brute force that it was able to uproot huge trees in front of Yakal, destroy some lamposts, and transform the University into a vast jungle full of twigs, branches, and debris.

Milenyo.

In a brief moment of peace--we were guessing the eye of the storm was passing by--some friends and I walked out of the dorm to see the damage. My, it was overwhelmingly tremendous.



We walked around the Academic Oval, took some pictures in hope that we could sell them to GMA 7 and therefore earn money, and went home to a dorm that was eerily dark. The brownout, we were told, would last for days. I took a shower--my feet was soiled leaves and dirt and twigs--and thereafter, went to my desk. Despite the darkness, I leafed through my Bible: Ascribe greatness unto our God. I closed my eyes, meditated on the passage, my heart fully trusting in God who is in control.



(The wind practically made a parabola-opening-upward out of my umbrella while I was headed for SC.)



(The scenes of devastation made me wonder: hmmm, this will usher in an ecological succession. Whoever said our lessons in biology are hardly applicable in real life?)



(The roads were closed, so classes were suspended.)



(Sure, sure, they've always beaten me in arm wrestling; but they had better be warned. They ain't seen nuthin' yet.)