Welcome to Tulane (and Hurricane Isaac)

Guest blogger: Samantha Becker

Welcome Week is the week everyone looks forward to all summer long. It is the first week of freshman year, and the excitement is flowing as student after student is moved in and gets ready to embark on the best four years of their life.

My start in school was a little different. Move-in day went as planned, I moved into Butler Hall, the Honors dorm. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t too excited to live in Butler at first; after all, it is the Honors dorm and that comes with assumptions about the people who live there. However, a week later I would be proud to call Butler my home for the next 9 months.

The day after move-in came the warning of the hurricane. Most didn’t think too much of it, it would most-likely blow over. The parents that were still in town were worried, but mine were well on their way home to California. All of a sudden, in the next few hours people started to become more worried as more and more warnings were sent out.

Nonetheless, we had our first day of classes Monday, although students who had gone home were told they would not be punished. Jump forward a few hours, and we were getting word that there would be a lock-in until further notice, effective Monday evening. That afternoon my roommate and I ran to the local rite-aid, hoping to stock up on snacks for what would turn into the best 48 hours of freshman year.

While Hurricane Isaac knocked down trees and power lines all over the city, we were safe in Butler. Yes, we had to sleep in the hallway that first night. But the hurricane from the inside was not as scary as it was from the outside. Our parents were frantic, while we happily watched National Treasure and Anchorman with people piled in the lounge and in the doorway. That is, until we lost power. And then we made our own fun; we had a dance party with portable speakers that ran on batteries and played random games. As laptops and phones died, we had to rely on the connections we were making with one another. I can’t tell you how many people I met during those 48 hours. We even had a giant jam session in my room that lasted two hours. It included a saxophone, ukulele, guitar, and drums made out of my calculus textbook. We were hot and the building was full of humidity, but the “nerdy honors” kids in Butler found ways to make fun.

That being said, when the power came on a few days later and we were let out, the feeling was bittersweet. We were sad that our bonding experience was over, that we would again be separated by cellphones and laptops and busy class schedules, but happy that we had amazing memories to look back on. I will never forget the memories Hurricane Isaac gave me, or the friends it led me to make, friends that I still have to this day. I am so happy I got put in Butler. The lock-in allowed me to give the dorm and the people a chance, and I will be forever grateful. I say to this day when I give tours that it doesn’t matter what dorm you are in, what matters are the connections you make with the people in it.

Thanks to the hurricane, it was the most untraditional Welcome Week any school could ever have, and while basically all of the official activities were cancelled, I don’t feel like I missed out. I feel like I had the best Welcome Week I could have asked for. As we say, only at Tulane, only in New Orleans. Thanks for the great welcome Isaac.