When Hurricane Katrina hit I was thirteen years old. I live in St. Charles Parish which is 30 miles away from the heart of New Orleans; call it the suburbs if you will. Our area got lucky and suffered very minimal damage compared to the devastating destruction New Orleans endured. The only damage on our property was the loss of our poplar tree in our front yard. We were even luckier because the tree fell into the street instead of upon our house. Although I know we were definitely spared; I still couldn\'t help missing that tree. You see this was a tree I spent hours in as a child. My favorite thing to do when I played outside was climb in my tree. The older I got, the higher I would climb as I became more daring. My friends from around the neighborhood would climb in the tree with me. We would play games or simply talk for hours. I feel as though I lost that tree at a convenient time though. Thirteen is the age where you cross from your childhood to teenage years. Losing that tree was like a coming of age for me.