Katrina: five years later

Five years ago today, I was a sophomore photojournalism student from Ocean Springs, Miss., sitting in Maggie Williams' reporting class in Southern Hall. The semester had just begun and Maggie was talking about what makes the news news. She had written three names on the board and asked the class if anyone knew what they were.

At this point, I was more worried about the Andrew Bird concert I was going to at the House of Blues in New Orleans that night than any people in the news. Someone in class raised a hand and said Katrina was a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico.

I'm from the Mississippi Gulf Coast and never evacuated for a single hurricane growing up. So, I went to New Orleans that night, not realizing it was the last time I would enjoy the city in its true form. Thankfully, I came back to Hattiesburg that weekend. I had class on Monday, right?

Monday morning Hurricane Katrina made landfall. When we finally got the trees off the cars in my driveway three days later I grabbed every piece of photo equipment I could get my hands on and headed for the Gulf Coast.

Although I had already had one internship and was the photo editor of The Student Printz, I realized that this was the first hard journalism that I was attempting. This was real news. Everything I had learned thus far as a journalism student was going to be put to the test.

I spent two weeks on the Gulf Coast making pictures. USM was closed during that time and returning to resume classes was pretty surreal. Trying to pick up in class where we had left off before the storm seemed impossible.

On the one hand, all of my journalism classes seemed to have much more meaning.  On the other hand, they seemed so meaningless.

That semester was both one of my best and worst semesters in school. I learned what kind of journalist I wanted to be, and I won some awards for my photographs from the aftermath of the storm on the coast. It was difficult, though, to learn how to deal with this tragedy and continue with my education at the same time.

In the end, prompted by financial problems brought on by the storm, I took the next semester off from school. I realize now I really needed a mental break as well.

When I came back to school one year after Hurricane Katrina shook up my world, I had a new perspective on my future as a student and a photojournalist.

Katie Carter graduated from USM in 2007 and is now a working photojournalist with the Vicksburg Post.