Yesterday, I got a text from one of my friends, telling me that I better go out and get gas, because gas prices were rising, and the shell station down the road was limiting people to 10 gallons. I went about my day, not thinking anything of it, until multiple people started telling me about it. On my way home with a friend from the fair last night, I saw bags over pumps at multiple gas stations, and a line about seven cars long at the Shell gas station down the road from my college. "Oh, no," I thought, "I better get some gas."

Now, I live 30 minutes from home, so it's not like I would be in any kind of emergency if I couldn't drive, and I have everything I need in my apartment and at my college to last me. I also have no appointments, nowhere to be; however, the idea of being stuck at college with nowhere to go gave me anxiety. I was also supposed to drive home, which again, isn't a long drive, but I also had no gas in my tank, and I had been planning on getting gas on my drive home. I was in quite a pickle.

My first question, when I was complaining on the phone to my dad, was, "What happened?" What had happened in such a short period of time that gas stations were out of gas, and the stations that I usually paid $2.09 a gallon for gas at were now charging $3.19 because all they had left was premium? The answer? A gas line break.

The break occurred in Alabama, south of Birmingham, and almost 360,000 gallons of gas were spilled. The result is a shortage of gas in multiple states, because this pipeline supplies fuel from states all the way from Houston, TX, to New York. A state of emergency has been declared by the governor of Alabama, and there is gas being shipped on an alternative line.

Now, I know that a shortage of gasoline or a raise in prices isn't the end of the world, but from the way the Shell station looked last night, you would've thought that Christ was coming back because people were absolutely losing their minds.

After I asked my dad what had happened, he told me that I better go get some gas before it was all gone, so I hung up the phone and drove down to the only station open in Swannanoa, which is the usually overpriced shell station. I pulled in, slightly frazzled, and I was immediately annoyed by the way people had decided to act at the station. There were at least three gas pumps wide open, but people had stopped at the first one instead of pulling all the way through, so that stopped anybody from getting to the open pumps. Then, there were the greedy people that brought gas cans with them and were taking up two pumps just for themselves, which, I'm pretty sure, was against the "10 gallon limit" rule. I hopped in line behind a truck whose driver was being extremely impatient and rude, and even almost hit me with their truck trying to back and basically cut in line.

Meanwhile, I'm sitting in line, my gas light is on, and I am at the risk of running out of gas right then and there, but finally a spot opened up, and I was able to get 10 gallons of premium gas, which cost me $31.00 and only filled my car up halfway. As a comparison, that amount of money, on unleaded gas, usually fills my car up 3/4 or more.

My point of telling you all this is to say: I didn't realize how important gas was.

Think about it, if we were out of gas for an extended period of time, people would go crazy! What would we do for gas? It also makes me think about other things that we wouldn't be able to go without. I remember that once, in Waynesville, the cell phone service was out for an evening and everyone was going crazy because they couldn't get any kind of calls or texts out. When electricity goes out, it's cool for awhile, until you need to charge your phone, or fix dinner, or heat water for a shower. What if there was a shortage of bread for some reason? No bread in any stores for a week. There would be mobs in stores to buy bread, even if you could live off of something else for a week. Does everyone remember when Hostess said they were going to stop production and Twinkie sells went through the roof? People were paying good amounts of money for Twinkies. Luckily, Twinkies are still being produced. National crisis avoided.

For now, gas prices will soar until there is a repair made, and my family will make comments such as, "I remember when gas was only a nickel." It is a minor inconvenience that drivers will have to face, and we need to step back and realize that this isn't the end of the world. Get gas when you can, don't drive as much, and be patient at the pumps.

And for those of you that have electric cars, I guess you can laugh at the rest of us now.