At four o\'clock in the morning on Sunday August 28th 2005, my family left our home in Kenner, Louisiana to head for Alexandria. It was my first time evacuating, but I wasn\'t too worried. I knew how these things went. Every time people evacuate, they return in three days to their homes. It was my senior year in high school, and I was eager to return and finish the year. We arrived at my grandmother\'s home in Alexandria at around 9 am. I spent the day visiting with family members and enjoying this time off of school, not knowing of what was going to happen in New Orleans.\r\n The house we stayed in was not too big. It was slightly larger than my own. It has four bedrooms. I stayed there with my grandmother, my aunt, my two parents, my brother, my sister, my sister\'s fiancé, and myself. We also took along two dogs, a turtle, and two ferrets. My sister and I shared a bed that we moved into the living room. The house is old, one of the first houses built in its neighborhood. It has a carport where family members can sit and chat. It has a large kitchen that connects to the dining room. There are four dark bedrooms, all connected by a long hallway. Every room has green carpet and wood paneled walls with several pictures on each. Some are religious paintings, others are scenic, and some are pictures of our ancestors. The house was cluttered with our own family and any other family that was visiting. At any given time, usually one of my mother\'s five brothers would visit to see if we were ok. They always brought along their own family. The yard was huge. There was a vegetable garden in the back. It also had a little swing set that I would play on when I was a child. There were trees surrounding the yard. At night, the sky would light up with stars that could never be seen from New Orleans. It wasn\'t my own home, but it would have to work. \r\n I spent the next month living there. I would spend my time watching the news, or looking on the internet for any information of my hometown that I could find. My days were long and boring. Every night, I would wait until nine when my cell phone minutes were unlimited. I would call my friends just to make sure they were doing ok. It was also during these nights that I found time to talk to a guy I had recently met. We talked every night until the sun came up. This person eventually became my boyfriend and we are still together today.\r\n Somehow my Katrina story had a happy ending. Because of this storm I have the love of my life here with me now. After Katrina, I still had my job. We had to hire almost a complete new staff. All of the staff became my best friends. They are still my best friends today. My home had very little damage. We were able to move back in at the end of September. Even the fish in our fish tank were still alive when we returned. I went back to my old school in October. Of course I can\'t say that everything went back to normal, but we were very lucky.\r\n