I’m not close to my family. Well, in terms of geography, I’m not. My extended family on my mom’s side live around 45 minutes to over an hour away from me, so I don’t get to see them as often as I’d Iike to. As for my dad’s side, all of my relatives reside anywhere from San Jose to Lodi up in Northern California, so I really only see them about two times a year and if I’m lucky, three. A few days ago while I was waiting to take my behind-the-wheel drive test at the DMV, my dad’s phone made a noise that sounded something like ‘ping!’ He had just received an email from the ABC News Channel regarding the flood in San Jose. Reports about the evacuation of residents were included in the article from the email. After reading the article, the first thing that came out of my dad’s mouth was, “Oh shoot, I gotta call Grandpa and Grandma to make sure they’re okay.” A couple of my cousins live half an hour away from San Jose, in Palo Alto, the neighboring city of Stanford. Whenever my family and I visit family in Northern California, we always stay with my cousins in Palo Alto, so the city is bookmarked in the weather app on my phone. I check the weather each day before school and last week I had accidentally swiped left on the app and it took me to Palo Alto’s forecast instead of Fountain Valley’s. The weekly forecast for Palo Alto showed that there were going to be showers everyday, so when my dad and I heard about the flooding in San Jose, I had known that it had been raining for more than just a few days up in the Bay Area. In addition, my cousin who attends San Jose State University posted a video of the rain on her Snapchat story, with the caption, “Why do we still have to go to school?? 😭” From what I could see on her story, it wasn’t just raining, it was pouring. Although I knew that it was raining pretty heavily up in Northern California, I had no idea that it was so bad that they had to evacuate residents from their homes. Luckily, my grandparents and other family members were okay, but I was determined to find out more about the situation. It turns out that at least 50,000 people were evacuated, eight people lost their lives, and the water rose to chest-level in some areas. In the past few years, Californians have been desperate for more rain due to the drought. However, the Oroville Dam in Northern California was in danger of overflowing, as it was filled to the brim due to the heavy rainfall last week. The majority of dams are equipped to deal with overflow, but the Oroville Dam was not. On February 7, a large hole was discovered in its concrete. If the dam was to collapse, California would experience a shortage of water for an extended period of time. Surprisingly, the dam was filled with too much water.
Residents being rescued in a San Jose neighborhood. Photo courtesy of North County Public Radio.
Just like how there’s too much rain in Northern California, there’s too many people who are suffering from mental illnesses. And with that, there are so many people out there who refuse to admit that mental illnesses are a real thing. They’ll say things like, “get over it” or “stop feeling sorry for yourself.” The thing is, many of them don’t understand that it isn’t something that you can just snap out of. It is truly sad that so many people are intolerant of those who suffer from a mental illness. One of my closest friends suffered from depression and was suicidal for the longest time. Her parents knew, and when she asked them to go to therapy, they refused to let her go. They thought her depression was just a phase. It wasn’t. She allowed her depression to define her and as much as I tried to help her, I still felt helpless. I felt helpless that her parents brushed it off like it was nothing. I cried every night because I didn’t know if the last time I saw her was going to be the last time. Mental illnesses are a very real thing, and it needs to be stop being taken so lightly by others. I’ll even admit that I was closed-minded and thought no one was actually depressed, until I experienced it for myself a few years ago. I can’t speak for everyone who has suffered from depression, but when I did, I felt like I was drowning. I was bottling everything up inside and I couldn’t breathe. Sometimes, it physically hurt, as in it felt like there was something sitting on my chest with each breath I took. At the time, my parents knew about it but they didn’t do anything to help. Although I was depressed awhile ago, it still hurts when my parents joke about it today. When will people finally take mental illnesses for how serious they actually are?
Depression can feel like drowning. Photo by 7 Speed Reading.
Due to the flooding in San Jose, many people began to question how strong California’s infrastructure really is. A few weeks ago when Southern California experienced heavy rains, a video of a firetruck falling into a sinkhole surfaced on Facebook. The majority of the comments were concerns about the reliability of California’s infrastructure. The Oroville Dam should’ve been constructed with better support. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, state water officials are working on plans to repair two release channels that have been compromised at the swollen reservoir. Just like how the Oroville Dam needs better support in its infrastructure, people who suffer from mental illnesses do too. They don’t need people who are intolerant; instead more awareness regarding mental illnesses need to be brought to light. They need people who are willing to listem, not those who push them away. When people keep everything bottled up inside, they’ll eventually begin to break down, just like the Oroville Dam.
Spilling of the Oroville Dam. Photo by Elijah Nouvelage.
Living Without Limits 