I can tell you the story of what happened that day over and over again.

Monday, January 14 of 2008 was the day the house we currently lived in got burned to the ground. No one was at home (luckily) but nothing was saved as well. Mom was at the mall when she got a text message about the fire and the moment she got back, it was already finished. All three of us siblings were also at school, knowing nothing that we had lost everything we owned that day.

Everything was shitty that day. Our project was unfinished and the member who was supposed to do it is absent that I spent the whole day calling her. Our last subject was Physical Ed and it was something I’m excused in so I hung out with my classmates who were finished with the current activity. It was then, with food on hand, that I received the text message that got ice-cold and sobbing.

Imagine leaving the house that morning thinking you’d be able to get there that evening and read books or lie on the bed but when you really come back, there was smoke earlier and the only thing standing are the walls. Everything I had that morning, I lost in that fire. All my books and DVDs and photos, all the memories I had.

For the first time in my life, I felt like I had nothing.

Which wasn’t exactly the truth because that very same day, we received donations from our relatives. The next day I got relief goods from my friends at school and the school. A few weeks after, we were still receiving donations and helps. Even fangirls, International Shinhwa Changjos, sent us new albums and some clothes.

We lost everything but we gained the realization of who just likes us for money and who is willing to stay with us when we had nothing.

Five years after that and I some time still feel like how I felt that day, lost everything and just had nothing but most of the time, I get reminded that I gained a lot too. Five years after and I lived after learning these five things:

1. You have friends and then you have friends who will help you when you need them to.
2. Every little thing counts, don’t lose it.
3. Some people really does like you only for money then walk away the moment you lose it–don’t get too attached.
4. Real life friends, school friends, internet friends, fangirl friends–all of them are friends, don’t think less of one of them.
5. Be strong, no one will ever understand how you feel even the people who experienced it with you.

Simple and basic things yet five years after and I still put those in to mind.