history repeating itself.

in 2009 and 2010 i went down to Waveland, Mississippi and New Orleans, Lousiana on my college spring breaks to do volunteer work from hurricane Katrina. the first year i was a participant and the second year i was the team leader. those two weeks were definitely some of my favorite weeks from my whole college experience, although sometimes i feel a little bit guilty saying that.

i mean, the reason we went down there was because Katrina destroyed a lot of that area. more so, in our experience in Mississippi. and this was 4 and 5 years after the hurricane actually passed through.

so to see now, that hurricane Isaac is currently has the potential to do just as much damage, if not more makes me feel like smacking my head and saying, not again! it's like when you're younger and they teach you in history class that learning history is important so that we don't repeat our mistakes. well how can we tell mother nature, "okay we got it!! we don't need another devestating hurricane!" ?

i just can't help but think of all the houses and homes that haven't even recovered from Katrina. the families that didn't get the support they needed then and may have to go through the same thing now.

going down to volunteer was something that just warmed my heart. the amount of work that we did and the garbage we were pulling out of houses and off properties filled me up with a feeling of goodness, knowing i was really helping. i mean, we walked into walmart and a cashier woman just started crying because she knew that we were volunteers. 

it meant something. to them. and to us.

all of this news about Isaac has been reminding me of my experience with hurricanes and whatever comes from, i hope the response to the damage is fast and plentiful. whether it comes from the government or from volunteers. and if you have the opportunity to volunteer i would take it. it'll change your life and it'll change the lives of the people you are helping out.

and that's my blast from the past for the day.