I'm going to start to post my daily journal onto my blog. Here is Journal #1:
Sometimes I think about the "what if?"s in life. It's always been a common thought in my mind. Sometimes these ponderings are very simple ones. But more often than not, my "what if?" is a big one:
What if the levees never broke?
I always think of this before I nod off to sleep. It's amazing how just some slight cutting of corners changed a city forever. For once, the world saw New Orleans as something it could never be imagined as: a damaged city, a wrecked city, a city without life. I may have almost lost a home, but the city almost lost its life. Could you imagine a world without Mardi Gras? To me, the thought is preposterous.
To move away from the global aspect, the breaking of the levees changed my life forever. Before, I was a foolish child, believing I would always be free and safe. Nothing would ever happen to me. After, I emerged a new person. An event that lasted 2 weeks seemed to age me much longer than that mentally. I saw the atrocities of humanity and how idiocy dooms the world. I learned that I lived in a corrupt city, the government taking money and cops looting stores. To think that the men and women we believe protect us every day can be no better than the lowliest criminal. Another prime example of this is the murders on the Danziger Bridge. Cops killing the innocent, then being able to cover it up for almost 5 years. Even now, it sickens me to think about it.
Positives can come out of even the worst events. I was able to see my community, which Mayor Nagin wanted to bulldoze and pretend never existed, rebuild itself, without true help from the government. It was a disheartening yet joyful sight. After the storm, I was fortunate enough to adopt a "Katrina stray," whom I named Mushi. He was more than a cat. He stood for the fighting spirit that we should all have. Even to the day he died, he would never give up and never surrender.
Through a series of events, the storm brought me out here to San Diego. Even though it is not home, it is a wonderful place. Had the storm never hit and the levees never broken, I would have never had the horrid and great events that came from it. I would have never met someone whom I care about so much, even if she doesn't know it ♥
