So this is life...

In my opinion, the scariest part of an earthquake is those few seconds at the beginning when the ground is shaking and you’re just standing there with no idea of whether you should run or just wait it out cuz it might be over soon.  Then there’s a jolt, the ground shakes even more violently, and you realize, “oh fuck, this is an actual legitimate earthquake.”  And instead of waiting for it to end, you feel like it never will, and start thinking of all your valuables getting lost when the house collapses on top of itself, and whether you’ll even make it out alive.  Then everything stops and you’re just like, “psh, it wasn’t that bad,” because you’ve scared yourself into thinking it could have been so much worse.  That’s the benefit of an overactive imagination: it makes you appreciate those times you don’t die a gruesome death.  So you calm down a little.  That is, until you turn on the news channel to hear a report that there’s a something something percent chance of a 6.1 magnitude earthquake in 2032, and you start formulating your evacuation plan from now for when that day comes (if it ever will).