When thinking back on my experience during Katrina, it wasn\'t all that bad. Besides being stuffed into a small college student\'s apartment with 10 other family members and 6 animals, the evacuation experience itself wasn\'t as bad as to be expected. We had electricity the entire time and even got to visit the mall. It was kind of like a mini vacation. \r\nHowever, experiencing what had happened to the surrounding cities after I arrived home was completely different. Driving home after the storm was a strange experience to say the least. Although my parish(about 30 minutes from New Orleans) suffered little damage, everywhere around us was literally destroyed. It almost felt like I lived in a post-apocalyptic world. Everything was shut down. Food was scarce because it had all gone bad when the electricity had gone out. New Orleans was completely devoid of life and things just keep seeming to get worse.\r\nI remember being so angry that the malls were all closed and that there was nothing to do anymore because no one was around to open/fix the damage. I was young and didn\'t really grasp the full idea of what had happened. \r\nThe real impact occurred to me when I visited the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Everything I remembered was completely changed. The things I remembered even as far back to a child was dramatically different. My favorite hotel was in shambles (what was left of it.) My aunt\'s house was completely washed away and all that was left was a couple tiles from her kitchen and a few forks. \r\nAt the time, everything was so unreal for me. How the things I grew up around had changed so quickly and would never be the same. \r\nI am so happy that New Orleans has changed back to the place that I have always known and loved. Even if the roads are still horrible and there are still a couple of dirty FEMA trailers sitting on the front lawns of what used to be someone\'s home, New Orleans has gotten back to where it was before the dirty Katrina hit. That is why my heart belongs to that city and to this state. We shall prevail.