I can remember it like it was yesterday. I only packed a few things thinking, like all the other times I evacuated, that I would be back in a couple of days. I threw a few pairs of shorts and a couple t-shirts in my suitcase and left with my parents to Ponchatoula to stay at my brother\'s house (along with 18 other people!).\r\n\r\nIn the two weeks we ended up staying there, so many things in everyone\'s lives had changed drastically. When we finally let sink in that we could not go home for awhile, my parents decided that it was time to start looking for a place to live. They looked at houses, apartments, thought about staying with my brother, and then finally decided on buying a condo. Oh but not just any condo...a condo in a retirement community!!! I understood why they chose this particular place. It was a pretty affordable price for what we were looking for and most of the things in the condo were new. We could have done a lot worse. But I was totally out of my element. \r\n\r\nWhile we were not completely devastated by Katrina (about a foot of water), I still had lost the life that I knew so well. I was now in an environment where I was the youngest person by 40 years, I was used to nothing around me, my friends and my boyfriend were hours away, and I was trying to find some sense of normalcy in a home that was unrecognizable to me.\r\n\r\nIn the seven months that my parents and I lived in this condo, we all did our best to make it our own. But there were so many things that were not ours. We had borrowed furniture, bedding, plates, silverware, almost anything you can imagine. And though this condo served its purpose, it was not home.\r\n\r\nMy parents and I moved back in March of 2006 and in May of 2007 I bought my own house. To this day I got a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach whenever the condo and the life we had after the storm passes through my mind. We are all settled again, and even though I had a huge change to make when I moved into my new house, it was my choice. I was not forced into a situtation where everything I knew was no longer. But the experience has taught me to not take anything for granted because you never know when you will be forced to make a new life for yourself.\r\n