I started college at the University of New Orleans a week before Hurricane Katrina hit. All I can remember from that week is talking to my grandmother about how horrible my classes were. I told her I wished I could start the week over. I never would have guessed that I wasn\'t even going to be attending school again for a few months. \r\n I wasn\'t really watching the news much so I didn\'t even know there was a storm in the gulf until my mother called the house frantic about booking hotel rooms and trying to make me pack. I remember sitting in the kitchen, painting a chest I bought at the local flea market, and watching channel six. Everything happened all at once. My dad was calling me telling us to pack up and leave. He works at channel six and was hearing all the reports so he was just as frantic as my mother. I just continued to paint the chest and thought the whole mess was kind of funny because I just thought we would be back in three days. I had watched hurricanes miss us before and didn\'t expect Katrina to be any different.\r\n