POST 8:

This past week in Family Relations class we were able to more closely focus and look at crisis and drastic events within the family. A crisis is an event that necessitates change. The process of a crisis and in how to deal with and cope with it can be broken down into this model: A for the actual event, B for both resources and responses, C for cognitions or thoughts, and finally X that includes the total experience. To more fully understand this process here is an example of crisis that occurred in my life not too long ago.

First, the actual event. The day before I was to come out to BYU-I for college a pipe bursted in my home and my whole house upstairs and down was completely flooded. This had major damage to the interior of my house and to much of the furniture and other property inside.

Second, both resources and responses. That day we were able to call our insurance on our house and they were able to call our insurance on our house and they were able to cover all of it. They moved my family into a hotel for about a week and a half and then into a rental house, which my family is currently still in. I had extended family in our area that were also able to help us and that made it much easier to deal with.

Third, cognitions or thoughts. My thoughts throughout this whole event were that I was going to have to miss my whole first week of college. With my house, belongings, and family in sort of a disarray  it was very inconvenient to leave and probably would have caused more problems anyway. As a new incoming freshman it was very hard to wrap my head around the fact that coming to college would be very different than I had previously imagined. Coming from a hotel, with not all of my family, and arriving the night before classes started not knowing where anything was or even how college worked at all I thought of myself at a disadvantage.

Finally, total experience. This crisis in my family was one that brought us closer together I believe. With no extreme lasting consequences, my family was resilient, we were able to bounce back in our time of chaos and handle what we needed to do. Everything worked out well with my school situation and the moment our house is getting an "extreme home makeover". Overall, I am grateful for this experience because even though it was tough at the time it has only made my family grow closer together and become stronger.