What started out as a curious outing with friends exploring the secrets hidden in the vibrant green leaves and cracked woods infected with fungi in a tree struck down by Hurricane winds, quickly turned into a matter of life or death.
Trapped inside one of the fences of Miami Lakes Educational Center was an iguana. It’s green and orange colored scales had lost its luster; it’s dull claws jagged and spread apart. Confined to the chain-linked fence, and a face full of waning determination. What should have been a force to reckoned with was lamentably devoid of its strength and will to live.
The iguana was first discovered by Maria-Fernanda Loaisiga, a sophomore in the health academy. She wasted no time in assessing the situation and scurried over to the main office in hopes of finding the iguana’s savior.
“I pitied the poor iguana. Why stand around and ignore and not find the courage to help a dying creature? Kindness should always be the first choice,” Maria-Fernanda stated.
As she attempted to seek help, the others around the area began to wander around the tree. Taking pictures, climbing, and denying the iguana’s existence while it spasmed, turning itself upside down. All except for one wide-eyed, innocent, and kind student: Diana Caballero, an engineering sophomore.
Refusing to step away, Diana rolled up her sleeves and tested the waters. First, the reptile flinched, as it was not used to human contact. It struggled, too prideful to accept her help. She persisted anyway, trying to find a way to help the reptile.
It had gotten more than half of its body on the other side, attempting to reunite with another group of orange and green iguanas across the canal, but had gotten stuck by the time the legs had to go through, the holes in the fence were too small for its thighs. She pulled and pushed and shimmied the stunned iguana around but to no avail.
“I refused to accept that the iguana was doomed,” she said. “I would have felt terrible and guilty if i just went home and did nothing.”
Then, out of the blue, a strange woman had appeared in front of the group. She was walking down the side of the road when she spotted the group of teens surrounding the frozen, unmoving iguana on the other side of the fence, and approached them.
Whether it was the iguana’s pure luck or by some miracle, the woman – who later identified herself as simply “Luda” – worked together with Diana to aid her in her rescue mission.
It took an hour, a long hour full of sweat and full of dirty, sore fingers as they pried the reptile from its prison. Luda and Diana were working together on opposite sides of the fence all while whispering, “It knows we are trying to save it. It just knows.” Meanwhile, Maria-Fernanda frantically called Animal control; They never answered her calls.
In the end, the iguana was saved, though too weak to move. It was wrapped in Diana’s sweater and taken to the lake where Diana and Ms. Luda set him free.
And at that moment, Diana wasn’t just a high school sophomore. Miss Luda wasn’t just a stranger strolling around. They were just human beings helping to save a life, even if it was a burden, even if it’s survival was truly meaningless in the grand scheme of things.
Ms. Luda and the group of students at Miami Lakes Educational Center did not know each other, and yet they came together to help this poor iguana in need, uniting two very different people for a common goal.
Satisfied with the iguana’s state, Ms. Luda vanished as quickly as she came and the teenagers continued with their day. The next afternoon the iguana was nowhere to be found, and we can only assume it gathered enough strength to join it’s family on the other side of the canal.
