By Judith Roberts
Five days before I said “I do,” I was glued to the television screen watching every newscast of Hurricane Katrina I could find.
It was my mom’s birthday – that was the day Katrina hit New Orleans. It didn’t seem much like a celebration that day, as my family wondered what was going to happen to me and my very soon-to-be husband.
See, we had rented an apartment in Metairie just a month earlier. We had jobs in New Orleans. We both planned to attend seminary in the city. Our lives were supposed to start in New Orleans.
In the days that followed, we were reminded again and again of the love and support we had in Ruston. Both of us were offered jobs just days before our wedding. We found housing, even as so many other Katrina evacuees were heading to north Louisiana, too. I even was able to enroll in grad school in Lincoln Parish – it wasn’t seminary, but it was a pursuit of a master’s degree.
We spent one month in New Orleans, imagining how our lives would go, and within a week, we found ourselves with completely new lives – married, gainfully employed, and living in Ruston, where we did not see ourselves staying.
And now, 20 years later – we’re still here.
New Orleans will always have a piece of my heart. I love that city. I love the culture, the food, the activities. I love going to the aquarium and City Park (especially at Christmas) and walking the riverbank. I love that places like Kenner and Metairie are just as vibrant as the actual city and the people I know there.
But Ruston…Ruston is home.
I can’t imagine raising my girls anywhere else. I can’t imagine living anywhere else, where I can sit on my front porch and wave to the neighbors walking and the deer that cross my yard, all in the same day. I love that we wear Tech blue on Fridays and your favorite high school team on fall Friday nights. This is a town that celebrates everything fully, from businesses collaborating with fun treats to support Ruston Community Theatre plays to Railroad Park events to welcoming college students during the Dog Days of Summer.
I love that I can let my kids be kids, because I know the police chief and the sheriff and know our law enforcement officers are doing their best to protect our parish. I love that our mayor offers his phone number to incoming students’ parents because he wants them to know he listens to them. I love that our university presidents don’t work in an academic silo – they partner with businesses to bring in more support to our area.
New Orleans was the plan, the dream. But Ruston is the better reality.
Ruston has my heart.
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