Ecoliteracy Narrative
This unit consisted of us looking back to a time in our life when we experienced a realization or growth in relation to the environment. At the end of the term, we were assigned to write a ecoliteracy narrative of that experience in a fiction-like story. I decided to write on a fire that my family and I experienced in our past and how that altered my perspective on the world from that point on. I decided to create a relationship between my experience and how I learned the affects of air pollution not only on the environment, but also the people who live in it. While this was a tough experience to speak on, I think it really encases a personal revelation on the environment.
Original Submission:
The fire that taught me
What if I told you that an entire reality can change with just one simple mistake? While one day all the pieces in the puzzle of your life seemed to align perfectly, the next day you are left with nothing but an empty box. I come from a very traditional Pakistani family in which everything is basically the same as the day before with little differences such as what we eat or what show we watched. I was never really aware about the financial or household struggles that my family was facing because my parents always presented our life to be perfect which I am both super grateful and unhappy about. Personally for me as a teenager, I was under the impression that nothing this drastic could happen. So it was really a culture shock in a way to my siblings and I when we were not sure if we would be able to sleep in our beds that night.
It started off as just another Monday morning in I believe the summer of 2019, until it wasn’t. My mom and dad had already gone to work that day and I was at home with my four older siblings at our three bedroom apartment in Brooklyn. At around 10 or 10:30 am, I remember waking up and smelling a strong scent of charcoal and a burn in my eye from the smoke that filled the air. The next moment, I saw my older sister, who was 22 at the time, running around the house trying to get my siblings and I out of bed and outside the house. Looking at my house for the first time that morning, the only thing I really saw was the gray smoke that filled the room from the hardwood floors to the ceiling. It reminded me of that scene from the third Harry Potter movie where the dementors made an appearance. The entire scene felt cold and upsetting while the dementors “sucked all the happiness away from the world”. That’s kinda what it felt like for me. I was able to have a quick glance into the kitchen and I remember seeing orangish flames coming from the stove. As I was being rushed out of the house, I don’t think I fully comprehended what was happening or what would happen next. All I was really worried about was being outside in my pajamas and how embarrassing it would be if my friends from school saw me.
After multiple hours of firefighters clearing the fire, emptying all the apartments in the building and making it safe enough to go inside, we were able to go inside in groups to see all the damages that had happened. I was told to wear various pieces of smoke protective clothing and eye goggles; that is when it really hit me. Going in I quickly realized that the home I once knew was gone. Although the visible smoke that filled the air just hours before had been gone, I could still smell it. The smoke had now been replaced by the burned remains of the household belongings that were there before. What I found the most crazy was that at that moment, I could not even remember what my house looked like the day before. Even now, I have different descriptions and images in my head of what it looked like but not one clear description. The firefighters told my parents that the fire seemed to have started from a stove fire that burst after being too close to an unknown flammable item for a long period of time. That had we noticed it moments before, it all could have been prevented. We were told that we could not stay the night in the house as it is still unsafe until all the smoke was cleared. That was really scary because none of us knew what would happen next. I think what really scared me was the fact that my parents, especially my mom, were trying to make it seem like everything was okay but even they were having trouble keeping the emotions bottled inside. We spent the next few days at my aunt’s house and were able to move back in four days after the event occurred.
Looking back at everything that happened that day, I remember having a quick or instant realization that you don’t really realize how bad something is until it’s too late to be prevented. Just like my siblings and I didnt see the effects of the fire that was going on inside our home, humans don’t realize that the planet they are living and breathing in is actually dying from our own doings. The same way that I was, the majority of humans are living in a bubble where they think that just because something has been the same way for a long period of time that it means that nothing bad is going to happen in the future. That just because we are not aware or are blinded by the problems we are causing, that they do not exist. This is definitely not the case as I too lost a lot because of one mistake and now I don’t take my family and belongings for granted. I see the world from a different perspective only now when everything has been done and lost. However, that experience taught me that the mistake of one person or one event can affect so many people. The fire took place in my home, but the entire building was affected. Just like that, the doings of some people for a long period of time can affect the homes of all the organisms that live on Earth greatly. Instead of leaving Earth as simply just a puzzle box, why don’t we all work to fill it with all the pieces that make it a complete home.
Revised Submission:
The fire that taught me
What if I told you that an entire reality can change with just one simple mistake? While one day all the pieces in the puzzle of your life seemed to align perfectly, the next day you are left with nothing but an empty box. I come from a very traditional Pakistani family in which everything is basically the same as the day before with little differences such as what we eat or what show we watched. Personally for me as a teenager, I was under the impression that nothing this drastic could happen. Something as little as a small fire can quickly turn into something as drastic as destroying the earth completely.
It started off as just another Monday morning in I believe the summer of 2019, until it wasn’t. My mom and dad had already gone to work that day and I was at home with my four older siblings at our three bedroom apartment in Brooklyn. At around 10 or 10:30 am, I remember waking up and smelling a strong scent of charcoal and a burn in my eye from the smoke that filled the air. The next moment, I saw my older sister, who was 22 at the time, running around the house trying to get my siblings and I out of bed and outside the house. Looking at my house for the first time that morning, the only thing I really saw was the gray smoke that filled the room from the hardwood floors to the ceiling. As I was being rushed out of the house, I don’t think I fully comprehended what was happening or what would happen next. All I was really worried about was being outside in my pajamas and how embarrassing it would be if my friends from school saw me.
After multiple hours of firefighters clearing the fire, emptying all the apartments in the building and making it safe enough to go inside, we were able to go inside in groups to see all the damages that had happened. I was told to wear various pieces of smoke protective clothing and eye goggles; that is when it really hit me. Going in I quickly realized that the home I once knew was gone. Although the visible smoke that filled the air just hours before had been gone, I could still smell it. The smoke had now been replaced by the burned remains of the household belongings that were there before. The firefighters told my parents that the fire seemed to have started from a stove fire that burst after being too close to an unknown flammable item for a long period of time. That had we noticed it moments before, it all could have been prevented. We were told that we could not stay the night in the house as it is still unsafe until all the smoke was cleared. We spent the next few days at my aunt’s house and were able to move back in four days after the event occurred.
Looking back at everything that happened that day, I remember having a quick or instant realization that you don’t really realize how bad something is until it’s too late to be prevented. Just like my siblings and I didnt see the effects of the fire that was going on inside our home, humans don’t realize that the planet they are living and breathing in is actually dying from our own doings. The same way that I was, the majority of humans are living in a bubble where they think that just because something has been the same way for a long period of time that it means that nothing bad is going to happen in the future. That just because we are not aware or are blinded by the problems we are causing, that they do not exist. This is definitely not the case as I too lost a lot because of one mistake and now I don’t take my family and belongings for granted. I see the world from a different perspective only now when everything has been done and lost. However, that experience taught me that the mistake of one person or one event can affect so many people. The fire took place in my home, but the entire building was affected. Just like that, the doings of some people for a long period of time can affect the homes of all the organisms that live on Earth greatly. Instead of leaving Earth as simply just a puzzle box, why don’t we all work to fill it with all the pieces that make it a complete home.
