Moving Forward

After the hurricane hit last week, I was having a really hard time dealing with what was happening back home, both on the Coast and in New Orleans. Certainly not as hard as many of my friends and their families who were there and evacuated, most of whom still have not returned home, but being so far away from it all seemed to add another aspect of hardship. Relying on CNN and text messaging for whatever updates I could get on whether my friends were safe, whether their homes were in tact or not was wearing me down, and I spent the better part of the past week in a daze. I'm happy to say that most of our worst fears were not realized, though some were, and my thoughts are certainly with those who have lost homes and businesses in this horrible tragedy.

I know many areas of Mississippi and Louisiana are a very long way from even beginning the rebuilding process, but I also know that the people that I know and love in those places are the best ones possible to take the reins once the process is ready to begin and to lead the efforts in my collective home of Long Beach (and the rest of the Gulf Coast) and New Orleans to restore them to what they should be, which are wonderful places to grow up and to live and to experience the best of what the South has to offer, which is the hospitality and character of this country's strongest and friendliest people.