New Orleans
2008 September 7
I love New Orleans. And I love my university, Loyola University New Orleans.
New Orleans is one of the few cities where my heartbeat speeds up when the plane comes in for a landing, or when I cross one of the bridges when I’m driving into the city.
But, I have to say, as a college counselor, I’ll have a difficult time recommending New Orleans to my students. This last storm was too close on the heels of the Disaster of three years ago.
Now I believe that the patterns have changed and the unexpected should be expected with more frequency.
Ok. You are right. I totally agree. My child’s father is from New Orleans, and I will not, as a disabled foreigner with and infant, move there with my baby, due to the instability of that region.
There are issues of health insurance and visas and a little baby’s sensitivity to toxic soups to consider in my case.
College is a big investment; term is disrupted by all of this weather, and will be year in and year out. If you want to get your schooling completed smoothly and easily, don’t move to New Orleans.
But there are more important things than smoothness and ease. Who cares if it takes you a little longer to finish school? If you are young, with no dependants, hell yes move to New Orleans.
You would learn such magical things from the soul of that city.
You would be there as big important fights about what it is to be a citizen of the United States are being played out day in and day out.
You would be there, in the middle of important social movements, in the middle of world historical events– if you are young and strong and healthy and curious and potentially helpful, GO.
Spend your money there. Devote some time to the place. Risk your life– risk taking is important for growth. Learn things out side of the class room.
Be there, bear witness.
I carry around a little piece of black linoleum in my purse. It comes from a floor in what used to be Storyville, the neighbourhood where jazz was born.
Go there, be there, live that place and love it before it sinks into the sea.
Get that city into your bones and carry it with you the whole rest of your life.
A lot of what you learn in class in college is boring and b.s. and not nearly as vital as what you can find by perusing the shelves of your local library or bookstore’s section on the topic your class is supposed to be covering.
The best students always do lots of extra reading over and above what the teacher assigns anyway.
COLLEGE is in many ways just an excuse to move to a different CITY– and if we are talking cities that could teach you a few things, DAMN– why are you reccommending any city other than New Orleans?
Go to the PLACE that will open you up, unsettle you, move you, ground you, connect you to your big, golden, powerful life. For some students, that is going to be NEW ORLEANS, right now in this time.
God Bless them and God Bless New Orleans.