Milne Boys Home

So today I went out walking around my uncles old neighborhood that he lived in before Hurricane Katrina taking pictures for my Ogden homework, and I met up with Jose and he walked around with me for awhile while I was taking the pictures, and we went over to the old Milne Boys Home for me to take some shots of it, since it has some pretty amazing architecture. My whole life, that property had amazed me. I've never been quite sure why, but it has. There is a pull to it that I have, that I'm not sure where it is coming from. Before Katrina it just fascinated me, the way it was built, the way they arranged the buildings on the property. Now, 5 years after the storm, it hasn't been touched since Katrina.. No one has tried to restore it. No one has attempted to get anyone to restore it. It makes me sad to see such beautiful and sad buildings just sit there, abandoned.. My goal in life, now, is to save up enough money, that if no one ever restores it, I can, and I will re-open it as an orphanage. I want to restore those buildings so bad, it isn't even funny. I just got back home a little while ago from them, and I feel like my heart is aching to bring it back to it's original condition.

hmmmm . NYU or Williams ? ? Or Columbia or Conn College ? ? Or Azusa ? hmmm . . .

Soo. Ive spent the last two days scouring the internet and my friends minds on different colleges to add to my list of possible applications. Its making my life interesting, thinking about my future. I keep getting more and more into thought about what my life will be like once I graduate, especially since I'm now thinking about taking online courses this summer to skip a grade, making it one year less until I leave for college.. I'm not to sure about how I will take to this change, especially seeing as how I'm looking at schools so far away from home. New York, Massachusetts, California. Idk what's going to happen, but I guess that's all what these changing shadows are about, you never truly know which way they are going to go when you turn, or in what shape they will turn out. Imma just go with the flow, and see how it all ends up. I know God will take care of it.

So, my views on the world are changing. Every time I learn something new through an artist's work, it puts my mind into that area of perspective. When we went to the Ogden last week for my after school junior curators program, we studied 2 exhibits that were based off of Hurricane Katrina, and it made me start looking around and re-see how things have changed since the days before Katrina, the few months after, and now..  Also, today we looked at walker evan's architecture photos, and after we left, i couldnt help but notice everything in the style the buildings i passed held. it makes life so much more interesting to look at it from an artistic point of view. it changes the way you see things for the rest of your life. for me, everything is always a photograph.. something to store the moments that have passed.

Marshall.... FOREVER a Maverick.

Okay.. So I know I said that I would be posting part 3 of my katrina story today.. But things changed, and I feel like I need to just talk today.. Im going through alot right now, so id rather talk about the present.. after all, isnt the present all that matters... living in the moment? no? oh well.. get over it. i left my life back in marshall with goodbyes.. with tears... with sadness... leaving the place that gave me happiness when there was nothing else.. I may not be in marshall physically anymore, but i am still a mav.. no matter what i always will be.. (yall better kick some lobo butt friday) and i miss you guys.. i hate being gone... you know that.. if you dont know that, then you dont pay any attention.. get your eyes checked too while youre at it.. this is stupid, me not being there. not being there for my freshman year, not being there for my best friend.. not being there to talk to the people i love... and miss... it brings me to tears to think of what im missing... i love you guys.. remember that.


I love you best friend...


Lovelovelove,
-t-

5 Years Have Come And Gone... MY Katrina story. Part 2

On September 12th, I started school at Davy Crockett Elementary School in Marshall, TX.. Meeting my best friend, the person who knows the most about me. The person who knows more about me than I do. Te person who's family came to be my second family. Holly Anne. She told me that God is there no matter what, and that he was watching over me, that that was why my family was safe. That sticks to my memory like nothing else in the world. Its funny how we started out thinking, "Hm.. She seems really nice, I bet she'll never be my friend." Haha.. How wrong we would both turn out to be. We were inseparable past that point. She showed me around. She knew the school like her house. Her dad was the principal of our school. My class was amazing, and Im still really close to most of them to this day.. Mrs. Bates was such an amazing teacher, that she made the class feel like a family. 3 or 4 weeks after the storm my mom and dad went back to our house in New Orleans, to see what was left, and see if they could find our cat.. We werent able to evacuate with him because he got out of the house the day we left.. No such luck.. They were able to get a few of our things, my first guitar, my Angel doll, and a few other special items.. We lost most of our pictures.. We have almost NO baby pictures of me left, if any... One picture of my Grandma left, who died in 2001.. And its not even a good picture, she just happened to be in the frame when it was taken.. Prince, our cat, was no where to be found.. We like to believe that after the storm he was one of the thousands of animals the search and rescue crews saved, or that someone who went through the neighborhoods after saved him and found him a good home.. My life was changed.. All I had left were my family, some of which I didnt know where they were or how they were, a few material possessions, but I wasn't HOME anymore.. I was lost.. I pushed away from everyone except my horses and dogs.. I found a few friends.. One whose grandparents lived down the street from mine, Asia, her grandparents were in town when we went too see my Pawpaw's house. Asia was living in Vegas last I heard. At school, Asia and I were best friends with a girl named Amanda.. To this day, I have no idea what happened to Amanda.. Asia never heard from her.. We dont know if she left before the storm, or didnt get out in time... And most of me WANTS to believe she got out and is living somewhere else happy, but deep down.. Im not so sure.. Her parents didn't want to leave the city.. They had been there for generations, and weren't the kind to evacuate..

Theres part 2... I cant post more than that at once.. It's too overwhelming to remember it all... Especially this close to the anniversary.. More tomorrow.


Lovelovelove,
-T-

5 Years Have Come And Gone... MY Katrina story.

5 years ago.. On this very date.. I had NO idea that in t-minus 7 days my life would be turned upside down, and I would be thrown into a rip-tide of emotions, friendship, being scared. I didn't know that some of the best people I have EVER met.. And that I ever WILL meet were going to be in my life coming in the next few weeks.. On August 26th, 2005 New Orleans mayor, Ray Nagin, was on the news frantic..saying the city had to be evacuated immediately... My Mom, Dad, Uncle, Pawpaw, Mawmaw and I all evacuated to Jackson, MI with our friend Debbie and her horse, with our 2 horses and 2 dogs on August 27th.. On August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.. My world was turned upside down. We watched CNN 24/7 keeping updated on everything.. 3 days after the storm, we left Jackson due to complications with the friend we were staying with, driving 14 hours to Marshall, TX.. Little did I know that I would come to know and love this tiny town more than I had ever loved anything in my life. We stayed at the Josey Ranch, because we knew they would take us and our animals in.. Mr. and Mrs. Josey treated us like family. They became family.. We stayed at the ranch for a few months, and took up residency in Marshall. Two weeks after the storm, September 12th, I started school at Davy Crockett. I met my best friend that day. Holly Anne Vickers. I love you girl.



Every day this week I will add more to my story.. It will be final on the 5 year anniversary of the storm. August 29th, 2005.

That is the beginning of MY Katrina story..

Lovelovelove,
-T-