Thursday, January 15, 2015
The Things I Carried to Allentown.
Evacuating for hurricanes was an exciting time as a kid. You get to miss school and go on a spontaneous trip. Ten year old Maryury was not worried at all about having to evacuate for Katrina. Her family evacuated to Allentown, Pennsylvania. She carried her love for road trips, her joy from hearing "no school until further notice", excitement for visiting her family in Pennsylvania (a place she had never been), and no worries. Hurricanes did not scare her, they made her think of long road trips with her family. Some of the more concrete things ten year Maryury carried were food, clothes for at least three weeks, music, books, and toys. The most important thing that ten year old Maryury carried with her was the warm company of her family. Once Maryury and her family were settled in a cousin's house in Allentown, Pennsylvania, her mother had a heart attack. Suddenly the two to three week stay at a cousin's home become a six month stay in a strange city. The things ten year old Maryury carried became fear for her mother's life, fear for not returning to home, sadness, and anger. She had to go to school with students who carried joy and who did not carry the kind of fear and sadness that she did, She moved into an apartment with her family. The weight of the apartment was a heavy burden. It loudly tried to call itself home,and increased Maryury's fear of not returning to New Orleans. Snow had been something Maryury longed to play in because it never snows in New Orleans. But it somehow became a burden. It became another heavy weight for it strongly signified a place far away from home. She longed to feel the warm weight of the family's company, a feeling that would return once her mother was ready to make the journey home. Maryury carried with her a new distaste for hurricanes and an increased sense of home, on the trip back home. My mom's debut (pg11)
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Your post started from the almost naive and innocent perspective of a kid to that of the city of New Orleans as a collective after Katrina, who were displaced. I identify with this as both your 10 year old self and also as your family members would have felt. I felt fear for my family members still stuck in New Orleans but as they settled in South Carolina with my mom and I, I realized that as long as everyone was alright, physical things could be replaced and that anywhere can be a temporary home, it doesn't mean that New Orleans would be replaced.
ReplyDeleteI really like that this is such an emotional post yet you added another layer by writing it in third person, creating a sense of detachment from your younger self. It gave me the impression that it was such a hard thing you had to deal with it's easier to talk about as if the person you're discussing isn't you, if that makes any sense!
ReplyDeleteAlso I tried to click the link but it didn't work?
ReplyDeleteThank you both! Oh no, the link is just an article that my mom and dad were in but.
ReplyDelete