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Wednesday's Indon Quake, A Change In Perspective For Me

Although it has been said and reported before in the past that many Malaysians felt the previous Indonesia quakes, it never really touched me as anything to be scared about. I mean, we are like...how many thousand KMs away from them? And besides, Indonesia has us covered...as in look at the map. The sea water would (I assume) have to wash over the entire Indonesian island in order for it to wash Malaysia over, right?

So, suffice to say, I kept the thought that Malaysia is safe, there is nothing to worry about. The only place in Malaysia that we have to worry a little about is the Pearl of the Orient, our precious Penang island.

But on Wednesday, as I took my usual break from work (sitting down), things really shook up for me.

I take my break on my bed, surfing for news and stuff on the Tablet, on my stomach. Then all of a sudden, I started moving back and forth. I thought, 'What is this? Is this some kind of autoimmune disease that is befalling on me?! Am I having an f-ing spasm?! Doesn't feel like a spasm'.

I looked at the fan and saw it swaying a little but not very much. I stayed very still on my stomach, still looking at the fan when the sliding door rattled. In this house, rattling is normal because when the wind is strong, everything rattles a little but there was no wind.

The rattling rattled me, obviously, because then I got up to check the other stuff hanging from the ceiling. The fan in my little 'office' WAS shaking a little more than usual, the lights hanging from the ceiling was not.

What the....

When confused about what is going on...the first thing you should do is.......

(drum roll)

....go Twitter and Facebook lah, of course. What else?

And there on my newsfeed, others said they felt it too. On Whatsapp, I messaged my cousin in Penang to asked if she felt it too and she said (along the lines of) 'HELL YEAH!!'

So, that was when all the news came in about the earthquake and I was strangely relieved to find out that everything's fine with my autoimmune system. My time has not come...yet.

You know what this experience taught me? It gave me an insight about myself...that I take things for granted, like all those quakes and floods never really, REALLY, REALLLLLYYYYYYY scared me. Yeah, I feel sorry about it, I try to help as much as I can, I sympathize with the people affected by the natural disasters and contribute financially (if I can) and all that...but it never really felt REAL.

At a conscious level, it felt a little bit like fiction that could or could not be real.

After feeling Wednesday's quake, I can tell you one thing - IT IS EFFING REAL, Y'ALL!!!!

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