Thirteen Good Things That Happened To Me Because of Hurricane Katrina
In the interest of positive thinking...
1. I moved in with Mike. This was a huge risk, since we had only been dating a little over a month when Katrina hit. Luckily, it worked out. My sweetie is the best. :-)
2. I got out of my dead-end legal secretary job. This was the post-quitting-law-school temp job that lasted a year. You should probably not get a temp job that lasts a year in a field that really bores you. That's some advice. It was sort of liberating to realize I didn't have to go anymore.
3. It got me back in touch with friends and relatives I hadn't talked to in a while.
4. I did National Novel Writing Month. Though I am still polishing the book, with a goal of being finished by August, a huge portion of the work was done during November. It gave me the jump start I needed, and the taste of what a real writing lifestyle could be like.
5. I got to live in Boston for a few months. It's always cool to try out living in a new city.
6. While I was there, I got to hang out with Chrissy and some other people I hadn't seen since I moved to New Orleans.
7. My new car has air conditioning that actually works all the time. And, thanks to my FEMA money, I could even sort of afford it. (Sorry, old car.)
8. Reconfirmed my belief that the girls of the Epsilon Kappa chapter of Chi Omega are the awesomest and most generous people around. Frankly, I think Mike was a little in awe of the way you guys got stuff done for us. I am so, so glad I decided to pledge four years ago. It was absolutely the right decision.
9. If Katrina hadn't happened, I wouldn't have my Jolee. (Despite the fact that we are not speaking due to the swollen black hole in my upper lip, I love the kitty.)
10. I got to see my mom race at Head of the Charles, and RPI beat BU... in the same weekend!
11. I have some crazy stories now. (Such as: leaving at the last minute on Sunday, watching the puddles rise along I-10 as the rain started, and sleeping on the ground at a rest area southwest of Birmingham. Or the guy who pulled us over in Ohio for speeding, saw Mike's ID and all our crap haphazardly piled in the backseat, and said we had enough to worry about.)
12. It has been really interesting to watch the rebuilding effort here. It makes you feel like you are a part of something. I wonder if, in the future, New Orleans citizens will be separated into "People Who Were Here For Katrina" and "People Who Weren't." I will be able to say that I was here.
13. I kind of do love New Orleans. Weird, huh?
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9 comments:
Wow! Great list of positive thinking. Looks like life is going great for you despite what Mother Nature had in mind. I am happy to read you are positive! :)
Best of luck with the book. :)
I played this week too.
Yeah on the a/c in the car working. What a wonderful positive list. :-)
Have an awesome day!
This may be the only positive blog I've read about Katrina. Great.
Good luck with the novel. I tried that contest once and wrote a paragraph.
That's a neat list. I'm glad you can see some positive in something so tragic.
Nice to see a positive list. I decided to check out all the T13s I could today and you'd be surprised (or maybe you wouldn't) about how many are negative.
Congrats on doing NaNoWriMo, and on still loving New Orleans after Katrina.
Keep up with the positive attitude! I love it! I'm a LA native, went to LSU and spent lots of time in NO. I miss it terribly and need to get there soon. Best wishes to you! Keep your chin up!
Great list! I'm sure there will be people who say I was here for/before katrina and ones who came after. I hope things get re-built quickly.
Like the list too, great to look at the positive when so much sad has happened. I whish to visit New Orleans some day :D
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