I'm worried.

The Nashville flood has made this last week seem like an alternate reality.

I've been studying for finals in my muddy clothes, going to bed, getting up without showering for water conservation, taking tests, singing in Italian/German/French, eating lunch in my cozy cafeteria, then headed back out into the devastated city to get dirty again. I've been helping friends pack their only dry belongings, strangers rip up their ruined carpet and brand new hardwood, petting cows wandering the streets because their pasture was flooded, laying out 1940s family photos in the grass, hoping they aren't completely ruined, then driving my unflooded 4runner back to my unflooded apartment to eat Chipotle for dinner and read up for my psychology exam.

I couldn't help yesterday because normal life at school was carrying on, and I had to get my junior year over with. I felt this strange guilt all day. My day was completely normal... when the families 1/2 of a mile away from me were out of house and home.


I'm worried we're being forgotten... Nashville is a disaster and half of America doesn't know.

I'm worried we're going to forget... what about 3 weeks from now when most of the damage has been assessed... will I forget about the sadness Mrs. Barb from Bellevue is still experiencing? She nearly cried the whole time we were there. Or Mrs. Pat, who lost her sweet dog to rushing water? Or the homeless who already had basically nothing, who had to leave their only belongings behind them to evacuate tent city? Or the elderly couple in east Nashville who drowned in their home Sunday night, because the husband was in a wheelchair & the wife refused to leave him behind?

I've been so proud of Nashville for coming together, for helping each other and for putting their comfort aside for the lives of the less fortunate.

I hope this faith and generosity continues.

I hope it doesn't take another flood for this city to keep loving on each other.

I can't let myself forget, and get back into my comfortable college bubble.

I can't.