Clementina Nunez [CN], age 18, is a Katrina survivor from The Boondocks, New Orleans, Louisiana; she lived with her mother and aunt in an apartment. CN talks about the week before the hurricane and signing up for classes and how they were planning to move; how that Friday was the last day she saw her friends and how the category kept on changing. She shares her experience of seeking shelter and moving through Louisiana in search of temporary housing and more shelter. On this journey, after witnessing the ugly side of humanity in unkind strangers, she is befriended by a stranger, Ms. Claire whom she bumps into in the shelter. Ms. Claire welcomes CN’s family into her home in Denham Springs, Louisiana and takes care of them for a week. Ms. Claire’s family and her congregation raise money for them to get their things with a U-haul from their apartment. She shares how, upon returning, New Orleans looked like another country. After retrieving what they could salvage, they return to Denham Springs to rest and then journey to Houston where Ms. Claire’s daughter had found them an apartment. She then describes going to school in Houston and how when she first arrived she felt ill. She talks about the media’s presence at school and their abuse of her testimony of various occasions. She talks about the stress of fighting the stereotype put on kids from Louisiana in school and how her second “guardian,” Ms. Clayman, helped her apply for scholarships and college. She graduated with honors, a Texas and a Louisiana diploma. She came to the University of Houston and found it ironic because she always wanted to study out-of-state and her family wanted to move and follow her as she continued her education. This was too expensive before but possible because of the hurricane. She continues about how the experience has taken a toll on her mother and has changed everything.