In August 2005 I was an 18-year-old college sophomore who had just decided to move back to New Orleans. A few days before the storm I evacuated with friends and family, as we had done so many times before....
We never evacuated in the 22 years I had been alive. Not once. So when I got a phone call at 5:30 AM while I was unlocking the doors to the Starkville, MS coffee shop where I was a...
I’d never lived anywhere with spirit.
Growing up an Air Force brat, most of the places I’d called “home” consisted of people whose actual homes were in different states or even different countries. We were all transplants; our housing was temporary....
To My Little Ones,
This weekend marks the 10 year anniversary of a storm that you know nothing about. You know nothing about it because you are too little, and it happened before mommy and daddy even got married. It...
"I'll finish this wedding album Monday," I thought to myself. It was finally Friday, and near the end of the workday. My plans for the weekend were simple: have a relaxing evening with my husband, maybe head to a friend's house, take...
Nine years ago, people across our country asked whether or not New Orleans should be saved. They asked why we couldn't all just move a little further up river? Why we couldn't all just start over in another town?...
{How to help Hurricane Harvey Victims}
{What It's Like to Be a Hurricane Survivor}
From NOLA to Houston, With Love
We're just a few days shy of the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and our TVs and social media feeds are again full...
Moving to New Orleans in July of 2005 was going to be the biggest adventure yet for me and my new husband. We had just settled into our new house on Palmer Street, only blocks from where my husband...
{see also :: New Orleans is Sending Houston LOVE}
My Katrina Days :: An Anniversary Reflection
We decided to stay. We had just evacuated for the previous storm, spent hours in traffic, and came home to a few leaves on the...
On Sunday, August 28th, 2005, instead of celebrating my husband's 30th birthday with our friends and family at a surprise luau, we spent the majority of our day cramped in our truck filled to the brim with photo albums...
It's been 9 years. The memories are fuzzy, fading slightly. But some things will never be forgotten. How I evacuated with my boyfriend of a few months, wearing only a bathing suit and cover-up. Literally, no underwear. I was...
“Oh, I’m sure we will just evacuate for a few days for nothing.”
This was the gist of what family and friends were saying the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina. See, before Katrina, hurricane evacuations were sometimes dubbed...
There are details that are so incredibly vivid nine years later, and there are those that have faded with time. But at the end of the day, those details don't matter, it's the lessons I learned in the aftermath...
I've written about my connection to music before. Though I was graced with zero musical talent, it makes me whole. Grounds me when I'm anxious, makes me happy when I'm sad, and during those times when I just need...