Growing up I was always looking forward to my first earthquake. I didn't understand why everyone else had earthquake stories and I didn't. I would go to visit my grandparents for the summer and come back to hear that I missed an earthquake. An earthquake would happen in the middle of the night and I wouldn't feel it because I was sleeping. I remember feeling like one had to have a certain level of maturity to feel an earthquake.

The first earthquake I felt was in the middle of the day when I was home sick. I was in elementary school and I was laying on my parents' bed watching sitcoms. My uncle, Johnny was keeping an eye on me that day and he was out in the front yard, or maybe in the garage. I remember a rumbling sound and some shaking and wondering what my uncle was doing downstairs. Once it stopped I went back to watching Three's Company. A minute later I heard my uncle shout my name up the stairs Alana! What are you doing?! Unsure of why I was being blamed for something that clearly HE did, I said I'm watching TV! Why are you shaking the house?

I was disappointed that I didn't know that I was experiencing my first earthquake until well after it was over. I decided that the second earthquake must be the most important one because by the second time you know what's going on. My uncle told me to grab a blanket and come sit outside, which I did, happily, resting in the sun while watching my uncle wash his car in the driveway.