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“Ahhhhhhh!!! Everyone hide under your desk! It’s the BIG one!”

“We’re going to die!”

“The sky is falling the sky is falling!”

These were all phrases that I did not hear when the earthquake hit Southern California two days ago. Despite what the media reports, it was generally viewed as mild by Californians. This was however, my first earthquake experience.

I was sitting at my desk, jamming to some tunes, and researching websites at work. Suddenly I felt a shaking but thought nothing of it. I looked up at our large industrial lights and saw them shaking pretty hard. I stood up (not the recommended hide under a desk tactic) and checked out the scene in the office. By the time I stood up and realized what was happening the whole thing was over (I did need to hear someone yell, “Earthquake” for me to fully comprehend the situation).

I sat back down, feeling a sense of accomplishment for surviving my first earthquake. At first I thought nothing of it, thinking that wasn’t too bad. I was quite surprised to hear it was a 5.8 because that sounded much more destructive than what I just experienced. Needless to say, I was online getting the news reports as they came, checking out how it was reported. I saw the same pile of bricks from a fallen building over and over again. Honestly, it wasn’t the circus the media made it out to be.

With that being said, I was a bit worried afterwords. I didn’t realize it at first, but my legs were uncontrollably bouncing for about an hour after the quake. I guess my nerves were shaken more so than I first believed.

Here is a video from the Judge Judy shooting the day of the earthquake. It’s a pretty accurate video of what I experienced that day, except nobody at my office evacuated.

* I’d like to thank the three people who contacted me to see if I was alright (surprisingly Mom and Dad were not on that list). Three people huh? Wow, I’m so loved. Thanks everyone.