Why I Use to Hate Having Fire Drills in School
We were all that point in our lives back in elementary school, middle school and even high school once the fire alarm went off, everyone had to evacuate. I obviously understand it is for everybody’s safety in case of a fire but I certainly hated those times back then. Maybe it was because I have had bad experiences with fire alarms going off at the worst possible times
I remember the stories my mother used to tell me when she was pushing me around in a stroller at the mall, that almost every time that we would go, the fire alarms would go off. My mother said I would get up out of my stroller and run towards the doors which is how much I hated it. Other times when we were in stores they would start going off out of nowhere with this creepy voice that would come on and say “May I have your attention, please? May I have your attention, please? An alarm has been activated in the building. Please proceed to the nearest exit of the building.” It truly sounded like something out of a horror film.
Even at restaurants it has happened quite a few times. A few years back I was out at a Chinese restaurant on New Year’s Eve and this extremely loud beep and bright white flashing light came out of nowhere. I remember the restaurant workers said “stay where you are, everything's fine” meaning that there was no fire or danger and perhaps somebody purposefully pulled the alarm. This is probably what happened during most of these occurrences. When they finally got it turned off everyone in the restaurant including myself clapped and cheered. At this point I didn’t care anymore due to all the other experiences I’ve had, or just because I’m grown out of it.
In School, particularly elementary school was a disaster when I was afraid of fire alarms. I remember when I heard there was going to be a fire drill, I would want to wait outside the school until it was over but I wasn’t allowed to. I thought it didn’t make sense since I would already be waiting outside safe if there was a fire or something but that was just an excuse I had so I wouldn’t have to listen to the fire alarm.
Another time was when I was in second grade and without anyone letting me or anyone else know that there would be a fire drill, the fire alarm went off. I literally jumped out of my seat and freaked out when it happened. When walking outside, I covered my ears because the noise sounded so dreadful. Some kids use to say they liked it because it meant less class time, but obviously I wanted it to be over. Also, a similar situation occurred when I was in middle school but at this point, I started not to care and found it to be more frustrating than anything else. I hated these times so much where the alarm would just randomly go off in the middle of a class.
I’ll never have the full understanding of why I didn’t like fire alarms or having fire drills in school, maybe it was the age or something else. But all I have to say is that those times are over and I don’t miss them. Whenever, I hear an alarm now, I just drain it out like if the smoke alarm goes off in my house.
