After the fire

"After the fire - A true story of heroes & cowards" was a book reading recommended by Dr. Noor. When we went to the auditorium it turns out, that it was actually a documentary, continued by a short book reading and space for questions.

I never expected, that those two hours would influence my life that much. 

Basically the story is about Alvaro and Shawn who tried to escape from their burning dorm. They were asleep when, the fire alarm suddenly went on. It was the third time at that night, so they first do not took it seriously. When Shawn and Alvaro opened the door they realized that everywhere  was black smoke and that the building was actually really burning. They tried to escape and the next thing they remember, is waking up at the hospital… after a few months. 60% of Shawn’s body was burned and 90% of Alvaro’s. Therefore the recovering process was very hard and took a lots of time. Seeing those two people fight for a normal life and their family members praying for them and supporting them was so heartbreaking and emotional! So what exactly did I learn from this story?

1. My faith became even stronger than it already was. What really surprises me. Shawn told us that while Alvaro was in coma there was a time when his condition became worse and the doctors were sure that he will die so they talked to his parents to prepare them for this. Alvaro’s grandmother was very strong in her believe so she prayed many times to God and begged to let Alvaro alive and let her die instead. From day to day his condition became better and hers worst. Suddenly the doctors found out that she had cancer and after a short of time the grandmother died and Alvaro woke up from the coma. This is a perfect example that faith can move mountains. And sometimes when your hole world is falling apart and people start giving you up, the only thing you can do is to pray and trust in the plans of God. Shawn and Alvaro said, they truly think God would not give a battle to someone, who cant win it. The strongest soldiers will always get the hardest battles. 

2. The second thing they taught us was to always look for exits when we enter a room we have never been before. The entrance we take is usually also the exit we take when there is an emergency. But in dangerous situations people tend to panic what makes escaping even more difficult. So there should always be a plan B for the worst case. 

3. Shawn ans Alvaro showed me that I should always believe in myself and never give up. Life is like a rollercoaster with many ups and downs. There will be so many situations ins our life that try to make us believe we cannot handle them. But this is not true. Although sometimes it seemed like our world is falling apart we should never give up. 

„After a storm comes a calm“ - M. Henry 

Neither the society nor a specific person should be able to bring us down an give us the feeling that we are less worth. Although 90% of Alvaro’s body was burned and his appearance did not fit into the expectation of our society the tried to life a normal life and gained self-confidence. We can never be replaced. No one has the exact same life-story so we should learn to love every inch of ourself and expect the unique person we are. 

After meeting other people who were burned and still live a normal life Alvaro and Shawn said: „They inspire us to live and we wanna live to inspire.“