It was a humid summer evening in El Salvador. It was calm, almost too calm. The atmosphere almost felt so surreal. The sounds of the birds, and the wind blowing through the palm trees. The sky stained with bright colors of pink and orange. But no matter what you did, you couldn't shake this feeling of "the calm before the storm."

I can recall seeing many different types of people as we boarded our flight. As we settled into our seats I could hear a lot of chit chat going on in the background. Everyone was in an upbeat, happy mood. The scene was almost too perfect.

As we began to take off everyone settled down. Most people, including me, just fell asleep. By the time we hit our cruising point of the flight I was knocked out. What seemed like 10 seconds later, we started getting massive turbulence. I didn't really know what to think. I knew these types of things happen all the time but I found it very hard to stay calm.

After about a half hour of bumps is when things got interesting. The plane was struck by lightning. At that moment, nobody spoke, everyone just stared at each other. Then the power started to flicker, and that is when chaos set in. Some people got together and started praying, others were trying to call their loved ones. I recall just siting there staring out the window hoping for the best. In a time like that your only option is to put trust in the pilot and hope for the best.

As the chaos pursued, I remember starting to see lights on the ground. Just then we flew out of the storm and everything went back to normal. I could see the people around me start to cry with their loves ones on the plane. It was truly a magical moment.

Once we landed I did the first thing I could think to do, which was walk up to the front of the plane and thank the pilot. It was kind of surreal knowing that this man in front of you literally saved you, and a ton of other people's lives.