old friend

I was driving my car early this morning listening to the radio when the dj starting talking about Hurricane Katrina. How could I forget....it right around this exact time 6 years ago when my mom and I were huddled in our newly purchased home (we had moved in a mere 3 weeks before) only a half mile from the beach here in Gulfport, Mississippi wondering if we had made a mistake by staying. I can still remember the noise of the wind and rain whipping around our house.  At first, I was mesmerized by the storm's fury; I had set up a chair at a small, uncovered window at the front of the house and watched as unidentified pieces of debris swirled around in the street. I will never forget the terrifying moment when I hear a loud crack, thud then the whole house shook and a large limb from our magnolia tree crashed into our front yard. The fascination quickly turned to fear.

Just a few blocks south of our house, we discovered homes that had been here for hundreds of years were reduced to slabs of concrete.  Front porch steps led to phantom houses and left us with an eerie reminder of nature's wrath.  In those following days, we endured soaring temperatures without electricity or running water.  And for those who have never been anywhere in the South in late August without air conditioner...imagine Hell...only hotter.

And we had no idea how bad it really was everywhere else, too.  We could only pick up a few radio stations and everyone was talking about flooding in New Orleans.  I remember when my family lived there years ago people were concerned about the levees, but, surely, they hadn't failed during the storm, right??

We all know the horrifying stories that came out of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast area in the days and weeks following the storm.  And we could all probably go on and on about the lack of response and beyond poor job of handling the situation.  But for me, that is not what defined us.  It was the the fact that everyone got together and said, "Okay...that was terrible.  But it's time to pick ourselves up, clean up and get back to life."  And that's what happened.  Of course there are still reminders of that day and, yes, it will take many more years to get back to the way things were.  But if you ask me, I think it's ok if things aren't ever "normal" again.  For me, it serves as a reminder that we are a lot stronger than people think and it's gonna take a lot more than a storm to tear us down.

All these thoughts about Hurricane Katrina got me thinking about my impending move (just a few days away, y'all...can you believe it?!?) and my reasoning behind it.  Now, when it comes to me moving to New Orleans every once in a while I get someone who looks at me funny, cocks their head to the side and says, "New Orleans? Now, why the hell would you wanna live there??"  Usually I give the easy answer like, "Oh, well, I really want to get back into my photography."  But it's a little more complicated than that.  Of course my main goal is to further enhance my skills a photographer and I picked New Orleans because a) it's where I was born, b) it's like the Mecca of the South for art and artists, c) there is so much life and culture and music, and finally d) I want to be apart of this New Orleans resurgence.

This last one is most important to me.  Its pretty obvious that in the past two or three years New Orleans has really come back to life.  More and more people are taking this city seriously when it comes to music, arts and its overall culturally iconic significance.  From the Saints winning the Super Bowl (who thought that would EVER happen?!?) to filmmakers choosing New Orleans as their backdrop, it feels like the golden days could be back.  You can tell that something big is happening here and as for me, I cannot wait to be apart of it.