Personal Narrative: Meliora

The day after Hurricane María hit, my family and I stepped outside to behold the destruction for the first time. Never had we witnessed so much vegetation tumbled down and uprooted. However, when faced with that devastation, I kept quiet. Stepping into my garage, I grabbed a machete and continued outside. Among branches and leaves, I began to cut down logs and other debris that was in the way. The street had been completely cut off by a forest that had toppled in front of my house. Little by little, my family and I started hacking wood in order to open a route. Noticing us, my neighbors walked outside with their own tools and started to work alongside us. That occurred during the early morning; within five hours, more than fifty people from our community joined our efforts and we had successfully created a passage for people and their cars to travel through in order to acquire supplies and, eventually, return to their jobs.
Through such, I discovered that I needed to be “ever better” for me and the people around me. At Rochester, I see an opportunity to become involved with a community that galvanizes itself to be better and improve. Meliora, the shared value that characterizes the Rochester institution, is a driving force that incites me to pursue an education at