We All Live in Florida Now

Aanum Khan ’26

Ellen Chen ’25

& there was a time when we could sweep it under the 

rug. 

We live two hours 

from rushing waves & the last time a major storm put us in a hotel was inches of snow & we were four years old & obsessed with Sofia the First. But, the storms 

(they warn) 

are coming more now. Our mothers call Eversource for our missing dose of climate poison / what we need to heat our houses & wait on the phone longer now. We stockpile more powdered milk in our garages now. We expect hot summer storm nights & watch the window-pane shatter 

with water droplets now. The then-houses / now-craters are on our streets & belong to our neighbors instead of just flashing photos on the TV now. 

We all live in Florida now.

References

Renkl, Margaret. “There Is No Climate Haven. We All Live in Florida Now.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 7 Oct. 2024,

www.nytimes.com/2024/10/07/opinion/hurricane-helene-climate-danger.html.