Over spring break this year, I went to New Orleans for a service learning project through Alternative Spring Break. This was not just an opportunity for me to travel, but an opportunity to really help a community in need. As many people know, thirteen years ago, New Orleans was greatly affected by Hurricane Katrina. Many people, myself included, have not thought about the devastation this hurricane brought these people in years, but they are still suffering, struggling to rebuild and get back on their feet.

When many people think about New Orleans they think about the French Quarter and how beautiful it is and all the colorful buildings and Bourbon Street, but this area was not even touched by Hurricane Katrina. The real damage that people are still recovering from is in the Lower Ninth Ward, an area most people have never even heard of.

Before Katrina, this area was filled with just as much life and love as the French Quarter, but now it is empty. Houses are few and far between, grass and plants are overgrown, the roads are not in the safest conditions, but no one is talking about this anymore.

America has this huge problem where when something bad happens we talk about it for a week, mourn and pray, then we just stop talking about it like nothing happened, almost, as if we are waiting for something else to happen.

Not to say that there is nothing wrong with mourning and praying with and for these people, but we have to do more. People need to start taking action and make a difference in these struggling communities.

New Orleans is a city filled with the most wonderful and loving people you will ever meet in your life. I am still struggling to find the right words to properly define these people and how amazing they are but no words are good enough for them. They deserve so much more than what they have been given in the last few years for the damage caused by Katrina. Even their mayor said that they have completely recovered which is not true at all. Maybe the middle class, perfect life people have, but the Lower Ninth is fighting every day to get back to what it used to be.

The week I spent in New Orleans on this trip was the best week of my life. Not just because of the nine new best friends I got out of it, or the amazing food, or the travel experience, but for the service, we did in the community. We were assigned to a house called 2438 Tennessee through the St. Bernard Project and were able to help with final touches of the house and installing the flooring. Being able to do something that you know is going to bring someone home is one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever had.

I gained a lot out of this trip and would do it over and over again. Not because it made me feel good, but because it was making the life for an unknown family so much better. It's not bad to get something out of service, most things we do in this life we are going to get something out of it and that is not necessarily a bad thing. I learned a lot about myself and how to be vulnerable and open in any and all situations. And I would not trade this trip for anything because it taught me so much about myself and about the amazing city that is New Orleans.