How Climate Changes Everything

by Anonymous

CW: descriptions of natural disaster

I’m from Southwest Florida, and you can bet anyone who lives in the Gulf Coast region has witnessed a hurricane. Though they are a fairly common occurrence, the effects can be devastating to the families in communities hit the hardest. No hurricane impacted my family as significantly as Hurricane Irma. Our home had been damaged by storms in the past, but we never bothered to fix the damages that weren’t life-threatening. After Irma, though, we really had no choice. My dad decided to fix the roof himself to cut costs. While he was working, he fell off the roof, breaking all of his ribs and inflicting trauma on his neck and spine. 

He was in extreme pain; he could hardly move for months. It’s terrifying to almost lose the person that you love, and watching them in constant pain when you can’t really do anything to help them can feel just as gutting. The financial situation wasn’t pretty either. Hospital bills piled up, my dad couldn’t work for months––he was the breadwinner not only for my parents, but my grandparents who lived with us. My grandpa has Parkinson’s and needs full-time care from my grandma, but a 90-year-old woman can’t really help another person shower, use the bathroom, eat, and dress. Now both my grandpa and my dad needed hand-and-foot care, so my mom started working part-time and helping out at home more. With less than half our normal income and four people to take care of, the weight felt impossible some days. I was here at school, feeling unbearably guilty that I wasn’t there. I kept telling my parents that I should just come home and take a leave of absence to help out; of course, being the amazing and selfless people they are, they wanted me to stay and focus on my education. Still,  it made the transition to Wellesley––already a culture shock, as a first-year from Florida––really difficult. 

My dad is doing better today. He still experiences a lot of chronic pain and needs to get another neck surgery, but is truly worlds better. There were good things that sprang from this tragedy: our community really rallied around my family, providing financial support and meals. Because my dad had to recover for so long, he was really worried he would lose his job, so everyone from his work donated their hours to him so he didn’t have to bear another burden. My community has always been important to me, but I have a new depth of appreciation for them. 

While I don’t want to call this my “climate story” out of respect for those who have seen their lives and communities destroyed by natural disasters, I really think that I have an obligation to other students at Wellesley who have been affected by climate-related issues, and an obligation to the global community (especially to people who are not as blessed as I am) to do whatever I can to prevent the devastating effects of climate change. 

For information about publishing articles anonymously, please contact the Editors-in-Chief (mfurbush or fgazzolo). From the February 2020 issue.