Once upon a time there was a city filled with life and diversity. People were attracted to the city because it had opportunities. The people that settled there knew that they were vulnerable to nature’s elements, but they chose to live there anyways. They raised families, generation after generation and for the most part, all would stay in the city when they grew up. After all, they grew to love their home and knew all the wonderful things it had to offer. Unfortunately, as with every city, there are also problems. When you gather a large group of people, there are bound to be some that aren’t doing their part to help their city and there are also some bad people. Well, despite the bad people and those who refused to help, the city went on and grew and became a travel destination on the map. This was a huge compliment to the locals as they couldn’t wait to share their beloved city with guests.

As development and technology progressed, many forgot that the city was vulnerable to the elements. They looked upon their local, state and federal government to help them fix problems and to protect them. Everyone worked their hardest to protect the city they had all grown to love as much as the locals. Then one day a big bad storm came. A storm so big and wild that nobody could have ever predicted what it would do to this fabulous city. A storm that displaced those generations of people that were proud of a great city. A storm that completely destroyed areas right off the map. A storm that left everyone wondering, whose fault it was, besides mother nature, that their beloved city was destroyed.

To the amazement of those from this great city, the rest of the world felt a need to help the people of the city. They either embraced them into their cities or donated their time, money and generosity into the city and her people. The people were amazed at the kindness of strangers. But then they became angry, as would be expected, because things would never be the same in their great city again. Many of their neighborhoods were gone, friends and family were spread out all over the map and the future of the city was not stable. They looked to the local, state and federal government for answers that would soothe their souls and show them everything would be OK real soon. They wished someone, anyone, would snap their fingers and things would be well again. But this was a huge undertaking and would take time as mother nature created some huge problems and the people that tried to help protect the city were the target of the local’s anger. There was anger and frustration everywhere. The negativity and anger quickly became the focus of the city and all the bad stuff was highlighted for the world to see.

Though many total strangers were offering their help and new settlers were coming to this vulnerable city to help make it better, the people were still angry. After all, they had lost their identity, their lives as they knew it two years before. Whether their life was good or bad at the time, it was lost and so was part of them. People came in droves to evaluate the city on its’ two year anniversary of mother nature and her path of destruction. Those people didn’t come here to settle or offer additional hands, but to make the world aware of all the problems the people already knew about. This didn’t help the city or its’ people get rid of the anger, but caused them to become more frustrated. The world looked at the city as a failure of the local, state and federal level and joined in with the anger that many of the locals were still having.

Then after they celebrated the anniversary of this horrific storm and their once beloved city, they realized that that things were going to get better. They put their anger aside and each settler, old and new joined together, empowered themselves, elected new people to represent them and realized that things would get better. After all, the anger was not helping share the attitude of how great a city they had to offer to those who wished to come here as a travel destination or to settle. The people started to realize that people that are trying to help the city, love it as much as they once did and still do. No, things would never be the same, but they were going to be alright. Those that chose to stay, leave or return made their decisions and this became a new city. A city alive with old traditions and new. A city filled with joy, hope and showed the world that the kindness of strangers was welcome. A city that welcomed their guest once again to their home. A place that felt rejuvenated and would again welcome generation after generation of settlers. The locals knew that they were still vulnerable to mother nature, but they would do whatever it takes to make this city work.

The End

(c/p at NOLA.com)