I felt the earth move under my feet

Last week I woke up two nights in a row to an earthquake. The first time, fear gripped every inch of my body and jerked me from my deep sleep. It was a while before I could doze off again. I remembered the stories I heard from the "Big One" that hit Kobe 13 years ago. My fear was so, so small compared to the terror that was known on that day. I felt a little foolish to be so "shaken" (excuse the pun!) when it was obvious that these earthquakes were nothing more than a normal occurrence in life in Japan. I talked with my students about the tremors and told them how strange it was for me, having never experienced something like this in the mid-west. "We never get earthquakes in Indiana."

THEN, not even 12 hours later, Indiana did in fact experience an earthquake! I chuckled as I watched the news reports on the Internet. This was BIG news. I'm not sure if I felt more justified in my astonishment of my tiny tremors in Japan or more like a country bumpkin after watching the truck stop patrons recounting their stories. I suppose I'll never stop being a small-town girl from Indiana.