What Doesn't Kill Us Makes Us Stronger....

So my post today isn't about me it's about something that is closer to my heart. That is the city of New Orleans and the people that live there. On this day...today...5 years ago Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast and the City of New Orleans head on. I at that time in my life was a freshman in College I had just started my first semester at Gardner-Webb University and had always been intrested in weather. I thought that Hurricane Katrina would be a bad one just like Hurricane Fran had been for the state of North Carolina when I was a child. But little did we know how bad...no one could have known that it would be aweful and that the levees would break. I had my first incounter with the devestation of Hurricane Katrina when I was working as a Summer missionary in Topsail Island in the summer of 2006 we ventured to Gulfport,MS with the youth that we had been working with that summer seeing the devestation for the first time was just mind boggling that all this stuff was here and then with this natural disaster was just gone. I helped put new sheet rock and mud the walls of a house that trip. As I venutred back to school that fall I was determined to not forget so that Spring I ventured back to the Gulf with a group from GWU during Spring Break 2007 where we continued to help rebuild. On this trip we venutred to St. Bernard Parish to gut a house that had water up to the roof. To see the devestation was just crazy the couple's house that we gutted got out just as the water began to flood there house they lost dog but got it back, both the husband and wife were rescued off of roofs in their neighborhood. To see the devestation and the fact that they had lost everything pictures dishes simple things like clothing never to be able to get those things back. We helped to clear there house till it was down to the studs of the house. We then gathered and prayed with the couple that healing would be renewed and they thanked us which caused me to tear up. I also visited the 9th ward while we were on this trip to see the devestation of where houses once were was just heart breaking. When we left I knew that the city had my heart and that I was destined to return several more times. That included the following Fall of 2007 then again at Christmas of that year, and then that Spring Break 2008 was the last time I was there. The last time I was there was very memorable for me I truly felt like the city had my heart and that God was calling me to help this city and even work with Disaster Relief ministry. I met on my last trip Ms. Ruth who's house we worked on and was about one of the sweetest women you will ever meet she even offered her home to us if we ever were to come back a need a place to stay. This picture is of me, Hannah, Natalie, and Ms. Ruth

There is also something that I happened to catch with my camera that last time I was there while we visited the 9th Ward it was different than the last times because lots of things had been cleared out. It was mostly now stoops and foundations. My heart even though far away thinks about the people who are strong who still reside in the city and on the Gulf coast. This picture symbolizes that:

Like the quote says "What doesn't Kill us makes us stronger". Until I get back to that city on the Mississippi....Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Trying to fly when your grounded in Concrete

"Somedays I feel like I can fly that I could take on the world then others I feel like my feet are made of concrete and I can't move." - Me

Every August for the last five years I have packed my life up to go back to school. Now that I have graduated I am not doing that this year. I feel a little lost during these last two weeks knowing that some of my close friends are moving back to school. I feel that pang again that I talked about last week. I just feel like I don't know where to go from here it would have been easier if there was a transition period. I feel like that quote somedays I do feel like I could fly that I could do anything and that everything is possible. But there also those days (I say that b/c they are usually several days in a row) where I feel like my feet are grounded in concrete and I am not going anywhere. It's almost like the age old statement "where do I go from here" whoever said this was a wise person. I feel that way not that I can't fit in here I do my family is here and some of my oldest friends who know me better than anyone. I just feel like I am a little out of place I just want to find myself somewhere else not here...It's hard to fly when you are grounded in concrete. The song by Rascal Flatts called "I'm Moving On" resonates with me:
I've dealt with my ghosts and I've faced all my demons

Finally content with a past I regret
I've found you find strength in your moments of weakness
For once I'm at peace with myself
I've been burdened with blame, trapped in the past for too long
I'm movin' on


I've lived in this place and I know all the faces
Each one is different but they're always the same
They mean me no harm but it's time that I face it
They'll never allow me to change
But I never dreamed home would end up where I don't belong
I'm movin' on

Like the line says I never thought that would be true..but it is...
Until I learn how fly with my feet on the ground...

You Want to be an Apple at the Top of the Tree...

“Girls are like apples...the best ones are at the top of the trees. The boys don't want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt. Instead, they just get the rotten apples that are on the ground that aren't as good, but easy. So the apples at the top think there is something wrong with them, when, in reality, they are amazing. They just have to wait for the right boy to come along, the one who's brave enough to climb all the way to the top of the tree." - Pete Wentz

So I found this quote on the internet today by Pete Wentz (who is in the band Fall Out Boy). I thought what a great quote how true this is. I have tried to be most of my life one of those apples at the top of the tree in which I think I have succeeded. I have also tried to be a good woman who stays true to her values and doesn't try to be shall we say a rotten apple. Although I have known some rotten apples in my day I also have known some that turned out to be rotten on the outside yet have a good core. Anyways the quote being true to form all the great apples are I feel at the top of tree and with my three best friends being great examples of apples at the the top they all three have found boys who will climb to the top of the tree to find them. I one day hope that a boy will be willing to climb to the top for me. Until then I will wait at the top enjoying the view and sunshine!

Keeps Me Turning Home...

I find that since I have been home for the last three months that something about my home town just has a place in my heart and that the memories are hard to forget. Your hometown and the memories here are part of your past which is something I  don't care how hard you try to get rid of will always be with you. Since I have been my past has seemed to catch up with me. Not that I tried to forget it I didn't it was just on the back burner while I went to college and found my way. I recently did dinner and played games with my group of friends that have been together since I was in middle school. There are 3 guys and 3 girls including me. As I sat there playing games with them I realized even though we had grown up and gone our separate ways a part of each of us was still with the others. Its nice to have that I feel that way to about my memories and friends from Gardner-Webb too. Like the title and one of my new favorite country songs says:

"I don’t know no town/Like the old town/Even when the miles are many/I feel like I’m still around/Deep inside me/Like rings through an oak tree/Yeah, there something ‘bout a Sunday when I’m gone/That keeps me turning home/

and another part of the chorus says:

"And I don’t know no friends/Like the old friends/I never seem to laugh now/Like I did with them/But deep inside me/A piece of history/Yeah, I hear their voices even though they’re gone/And it keeps me turning home

Like the song says these things like my hometown and my friends keep my memories/past fresh in my mind.
They keep me turning home!

Moving Forward in Life

As of tomrrow I graduated college 3 months ago. All though it seems like just yesterday that I graduated from college and even began college. It's funny how things change in your life. Right now my days consist of looking for a job and running errands, along with other household chores, and such. Some how I can't help but feel that pang to go back to college. I don't know if its because I miss my friends or that time in my life. My college years are technically over and that seems weird because for the last 5 years of my life that's what I have done after summer I have gone back to school. My other thing is that I feel like I have that pang b/c where as at school I knew everybody had tons friends and had people who I wouldn't say needed me but were a big part of my life on a day to day. Now that they are not I don't really know what to do about that pang. The only thing I can say is that where I know that I am who I want to be...I also don't know where I fit in this point in my life. God will guide me to where I am supposed to be and I will eventually feel I fit some where!! Until till then good night!