One of the oldest questions in philosophy is whether humans have free will. When I look in retrospective, my journey to Miami makes me wonder is everything predetermined. Ever since I was a kid, I had vivid dreams about a sunny beach, soft golden sand, palm’s waterfall, and beautiful girl who will love me unconditionally.…
As most of you know I am Brandi Fennell and I attend William Carey University in Hattiesburg, MS. This weekend was such a “God moment” for me. On Thursday night I just had an urge to go home. So early friday morning I left with a duffel bag with enough clothes to just stay a weekend because I thought I would be leaving to back to school today after church. Early Saturday morning around 3:45am my university was hit by an F4 tornado. The tornado did not save anything. Every building including our dorms were damage, we had cars flipped every which way. But luckily we had no deaths just minor injuries. We are closed immediately and are not to allowed to come onto to campus to even get our stuff.…
Hurricane Katrina swept away the gulf coast on August 25, 2009. Katrina was the most monstrous storm that has ever visited the coast and was considered an amalgam of tropical waters and dusty winds. It was the deadliest hurricane of category five causing horrendous damage and traumatizing scenes. Many lives were taken away and many lives have changed.…
I had just moved to Tennessee about a month ago, I was an only child so it got lonely most of the time, there was also not a lot of kids we're I lived then one day my mother told me there was a library just down the rod so I went up stairs to my room and grabbed a thin sweater and put on some old sneakers then I was on my way.…
Every morning, after I see Renji off to office, I close the grill door behind me ,put a chain around and lock it……
When I was seven years old and almost a half my parents told me that my family was going to pack up everything, leave our home, our livelihood, and move to Idaho. I was young but I knew I was going to miss Albuquerque. I was going to miss the plump quails who walked quickly with their babies toddling behind in a straight line and the skinny, all leg, roadrunners who would sprint across the roads. I was going to miss my little Crocodile Smile green room. I had chosen the paint color, I had watched my room be painted, and I had to leave it. Abandoning my home was hard too. The front of my seashell white house had two, big, high, arched windows. They had rusty yellow stains running down beneath them that made the house look like it was crying golden tears. Near the grand maroon oak front door were some slightly overgrown, prickly rose bushes. Everyday the roses blushed and smiled at me, turning their pink and yellow faces up. I was mortified to leave my crying house with the smiling roses. The day we left, I found out we were leaving. I had convinced myself that we weren’t going to leave, but then we did. I left my home, my friends, but mostly my memories. My memories included early morning balloon fiestas, during…
I was about four years old when everything went to chaos and destruction. But what three year old would feel frightened or afraid of ever breath, not knowing if it was their last. As a child, I was ignorant and naive to what was happening around me in the world. I didn’t know that the city surrounding me, would soon be drowned and submerged in the legendary Hurricane Katrina.Though I was only four and couldn't recall many details of the catastrophic event, my mother remembered everything. We had heard two weeks prior ahead of time what was to come, however my mother having always been a strong-willed woman was determined not to leave despite the attempts my grandparents and father made for her to evacuate New Orleans with me and leave.Yet,…
It got worse. Six weeks before eighth grade ended, my family and I packed up and…
The move wasn’t that difficult for me. Sure, I was sad to leave all of my friends and my great grandmother, but there was a whole new world waiting for me up there. In 2008, we drove 12 hours, leaving New Orleans, Louisiana behind and entering our new home, Charlotte, North Carolina.…
Take the time please, and imagine that everything is okay. I was outside playing on such a beautiful day. I was eight at the time, and was absolutely befuddled by the fact that this lady “Katrina” had everyone in my neighborhood frightened. Could this Katrina that they speak of really be this mean? Who does she think she is? At this point I was determined to meet this “Katrina” not knowing she would change my life without me actually seeing her.…
I flew back to New Orleans and it was just the way I remembered it. The temperature was 98 degrees and the humidity was so high that reapplying deodorant is necessary down here. The French/Spanish architecture gives it a romantic and mysterious appeal. The air was not as fresh as I had wished it was but at least I could still breathe. The air smelled of urine that had been there for years. The streets looked as if a tornado had swept litter back and forth through the town. Residents, not only tourists, walked past it as if trash belonged on the ground.…
We started our tetris trip to Florida in a suburban for 12 hours scrunch up in a ball trying to sleep the whole way down but you know how that goes you never get to sleep the whole way down. I usually play my phone games or play music,if I have internet. We finally get out of Kentucky and in Tennessee to stop to get some gas and use the bathroom,but if you're ever on a trip and you go in to use the bathroom and you see all those snacks so you want to buy one because you're hungry. We are now in Alabama which is the longest state we go through. Were about an hour away from the condo and we stopped to get gas and a snack at thorntons. We made it we yelled rolled down the window and jammed yelawolf as we went over the bridge.…
Moving on is easy but what you leave behind is what makes it hard. Once you get to a certain age in your life you know you have to move on sometime. I know times are hard but you have to push yourself toward what you really want in life even if it means moving away from what you love.…
It was April 9th, 2013, a sunny beautiful Tuesday and something just had to go wrong and ruin the rest of my life. It didn’t start this day, it started months before. It all began at school. These people came in nice clothes, fancy cars, and a whole lot of questions. They came regularly and pulled me out of class to ask me simple questions that I answered with the truth. After this started happening my mom and stepdad started…
Leaving Grand Rapids will be the greatest decision I will ever make in my life… Or so my conscience told me that It will be. I’m presently torn apart with the choice I made, yet I was hoping that I could mend my emotions quickly.…