I’ve been fortunate enough to live a life largely devoid of tragedy. I’ve lost loved ones here and there and have endured other low times, but overall I feel that I’ve been karmically blessed.
That’s why today holds such importance.
On this day two years ago, my college apartment, the beloved 1970s-beach-condo-looking Sandpiper, caught on fire thanks to an electrical short that may or may not have been caused by squirrels.It didn’t burn down. It didn’t kill or injure any one. It was bad enough to that it totaled four apartments, ours included.
Thankfully we only lost a handful of things. Here’s my original note about the fire on Facebook. Basically I got a mass text while in class from my roommate John that said something like “PIPER ON FIRE, FLAMES SHOOTING OUT OF BLAKE’S ROOM.”
My first thought was, ‘Why is he TEXTING this info to me, said person whose room in aflame?’ Then I hauled ass on my bike from campus. I couldn’t see any smoke or anything so thought it was just being overblown. Then I saw this:
Oh. Shit.
Yeah. Pretty intense. I found John, who had been showering when a maintenance man banged on the door and told him there was a fire. He quickly dressed and fled, not having the time to grab any of our possessions. He was pretty upset about that. So then we waited around with our distraught friends for hours, got aid packs from the Red Cross and $100 debit cards (“for clothes”) and pretty much prepared to be possessionless. When the fire chief said they would take us up to look at it after the fire was put out he said to prepare for total loss.
"My perspective on life: I try my best to do "The Brett" in the face of tragedy."- John Meller
Luckily, it didn’t turn out that way. We were homeless for two days. And by homeless I mean I stayed with Amanda and John stayed with his family friends. All of our stuff just smelled like smoke. We found a place right across the street, and were moved in by the end of the week. If you’re going to have an apartment fire, do it how we did.
Like I said, there were no major losses, but we did lose something that day. The Piper was our group of friends’ first place to, you know, be college kids. It was the center of our universe. Not all of our friends had off-campus places yet so we hosted every party and get-together. It was a time of innocence. That and under-age drinking. Innocent, responsible under-age drinking.
I feel that we left a little bit of authenticity and wholesomeness with the Piper. Our next apartment was nicer and the parties we hosted were way bigger, but they never felt the same. I don’t look back with regret. It was a change that was bound to happen. It’s just unique to have such a clear event to mark when things changed.
So here’s to you, Sandpiper 305. Our youth lives on forever in you.
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