My name is Luis Joel Suárez-Burgos I am a student of Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Diseño de Puerto Rico and I stay at Old San Juan in San Sebastian Street while I’m studying during the semester. After Hurricane Maria passed through our island, I stayed in Cayey, the town where my family lives. My experience was something that we say adventurous, which carried sacrifice, risks, responsibility and acquired experiences.
After Maria passed in the area, I saw the need to share money with friends who did not have it to buy food. At risk, I discovered what a curfew is and what it implies. Responsibility was the most that the sacrifice and risk had participation, more when Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Diseño de Puerto Rico sent its message of beginning of classes, making clear that the institution did not have light and had barely water. Most of all, I had to sacrifice myself because my apartment at Old San Juan was damaged by hurricane Maria and I was not fit to stay, so I had to travel every day because there was no water and my building needed to be repair. Regarding the University institution, it was a challenge, since the scarcity of resources and grants affected students, professors and staff alike.
I always kept the following thought in my mind; regardless of whether or not we are in limbo, someone should keep their heads up and act, I should be part of this action. This thought formed and is part of my motivation during these days that until today are difficult. While I was in school I saw the damage caused by the hurricane in this, among the most affected and damaged places was the Francisco Oller library, a space that is very visited and attended by the university community. Francisco Oller Library is not only a space of knowledge or study, it is the mental escape of our drained minds, the home of artists with great ideas about to be born. The family space for students who meet as a group and mutually share experience for their artistic and professional development.
I think that in spite of the damages, losses and shortages, the students, professors and all the staff of the institution, we keep united and firm to raise not only the school, but the whole country.
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