When I first heard that “Superstorm Sandy” was going to come and wreak havoc on New York City, I thought that the weather reporters were probably just overreacting. As Sandy began to approach the city, l was working on my computer, still skeptical that this storm would have any significant impact. And that’s when the power went out.

For me, it actually started out kind of fun. School was cancelled, which was kind of nice. During the days, my mom and I walked up to a Starbucks with power on 34th Street to recharge our devices and ourselves. We explored the post-Sandy city, talking about what had happened and observing the damage. And during the evenings, I spent a lot of time with my friend and downstairs neighbor. We used various flashlights and lighting-up Harry Potter magic wands to illuminate the apartment and recorded a little radio show called “Crazy No Power Times” in which we talked and made jokes about Sandy, among other topics.

But eventually, it began to get tiring and a little stressful. We weren’t sure when our power and heat would come back, and we heard about other neighborhoods in the city that had been hit even worse. When Halloween rolled around and the city still hadn’t recovered, I was disappointed that the storm had ruined a holiday I really enjoyed (and a chance to get lots of candy). I started looking foward to going back to school. I just wanted my life to start up again.

When the power returned, I was relieved that the whole experience was over. But I was glad to have been through it, because it taught me about how to make the best of bad situations and made me grateful for the everyday pleasures of electricity.