Hey everyone,

It is with a grateful heart that I am able to write you this post today.

This morning, at 8:00am, amber alerts went out across the state to all residents with the caption, "BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL." 

Naturally, most students were asleep at this time. However, as the seconds turned into minutes more and more students began to wake and, with that, began running. I was lucky enough to live in a space where my roommates not only all woke up, but also made it a priority to keep everyone accounted for. This even included our newest roommate, an international girl from China. Even more in our favor was the luck we had securing a car. One of my roommates' boyfriends happened to be over, and in this case drove us to the nearest bomb shelter. 

It is right here that I would like to paint this picture for you all. 

We're in the car, driving to a place we're not even sure exists, and all around us are students running. Up the walkways, out of the apartments, people are sprinting to find cover. A girl runs up to our car and tells us she knows where to go and is she allowed to come with us. We let her in and are immediately told, "Spalding". 

I'm going to do something unusual for my blog, and that is disclose the location. Up until now, absolutely none of us knew where we were going, and Manoa has never issued a statement saying where to go. Even at this moment Manoa had still not released a statement. 

After she gets in we take off and are met with cars of people jumping out and running towards different buildings. Busses are pulled over, more and more students are where we are. However, many of the students we saw running are not with us, which leads me to believe that many buildings must have been unlocked. Otherwise I'm not too sure of where they can go.

Regardless we arrive at Spalding, which is just a lecture hall, and take a seat, surrounded by students and civilians. Some people brought food, others water, and some pets. No one knew what was going on and no one knew if it was even real. 

After a good half hour we are finally told that the missile is fake. We're told countless times that "nothing is truly confirmed, but this is what so-and-so has posted and we just want to keep you updated.

I'm posting this because this is the raw side of Hawaii. The unusual, the unexpected, and the barely covered side of Hawaii. To put this in perspective, I was hiding in a bomb shelter before news outlets on the mainland even began to cover what was going on. This is quite literally a possibility of what Oahu's reality is becoming, and if you are interested in coming to Hawaii for school, something you could very well also experience. 

We're all safe now. This was my experience. 

Until next time,

Aislinn