The second portion of my project played out slightly differently than I expected it to. I continued the trend of capturing footage and pictures wherever possible of the damage I saw, but the interviews and travel aspects deviated slightly from my expectations, albeit not in a bad way at all. I spent much of last week setting up my journey to Lake Charles, Louisiana, which is roughly 5 hours away from where I am staying. Everyone I interviewed and spoke with so far as well as my own research told me that Lake Charles has suffered immensely as a result of climate change-related weather events and flooding, especially in the last several years. I found an elderly couple to speak with, and made the drive. Speaking with the couple was surreal, given that they had lived in Lake Charles since 1955. They walked me through the progression of the floods over time, how they’ve gotten worse, and everything they’ve observed and experienced as longtime residents. This interview was unlike the others I conducted in that their perspective was unique. I won’t go into too much detail or I’d be speaking about it for hours, but it gave me a new way of looking at the issue from an angle I hadn’t thought of before. Furthermore, after our conversation they offered to drive with me all around Lake Charles to provide me with residential insight into the damage the floods and hurricanes had caused as well as where it was the worst. Sadly yet unsurprisingly, the areas that had suffered the most damage were the lowest-income neighborhoods of the city. Exploring the town with individuals who had lived there for almost 70 years was unbelievably interesting, as they were able to show me how the city has grown and expanded, as well as the major setbacks the floods have caused and entire neighborhoods that were washed away. I could legitimately speak for days on end about how interesting this interview was, but suffice it to say on my drive back to Monroe, I had a lot to think about. All in all I ended up having roughly a 15 hour day, but I was immensely satisfied with how I had spent it. 

Ultimately, I don’t feel like that day or interview necessarily went against my plan. In all my interviews so far, I’ve tried to not go into it with any specific expectation, as I feel that limits what I am able to intake in terms of information and hearing about people’s experiences. Rather, entering the conversation wanting to simply hear everything I can from these individuals seems like the more effective route from my perspective, so that’s what I’ve been doing. Nothing really goes against my “plan” because my plan is just to experience everything I can of these peoples’ stories and compartmentalize everything after the fact. I tried to enter this entire project with the same mentality, and so far I feel as though it has paid off. Every piece of information or anecdote I receive I value, not holding any one above the other. I went into this attempting to experience everything possible about this topic, and so far I feel I am doing that. If it was not apparent thusfar, I am very happy with where I am with my project as of now.