Matty - I am New Orleans

There is this thing that the seats on street cars do. They can slide back and forth to create four seats instead of two, to make one out of many.

At night, the air smells like Confederate jasmine and magnolia, flowers that make you drunk with nostalgia.

There is a tune heard from October till June, Voodoo, Jazz fest, and finally that ring of the graduation bells in your graduation dress with your graduation crown.

There’s Downtown, and Uptown, in the park, in the clubs, on the street, inside the float, and on top of the levee--there is anywhere and everywhere for someone to be.

There are the characters who tell you their stories, who greet you for a hot pastrami sandwich on lower magazine street at 7am and there is the pill-popping tattooed gentle giant who gives you strawberry lemonade at your favorite Mexican restaurant. There is the waiter who works every night, and on busy nights his girlfriend works with him, just so they can be together. There is the po’ boy shop that has always called out their customers names over a creaky loud speaker, even if their only customer was the president. There is the homeless guy who stands in front of Jackson Square cathedral and sings Amazing Grace and when your coin drops in his bucket he thanks “you my dear sister.” There are the fighters who stand up against those (oil) companies that think we are just backwater country bumpkins, oh how they showed them. There are the French, the Spanish, the people who are at least 1/3 angel and 2/3 devil and frequently tour the streets. There are the chefs and the firefighters who ring 6 alarms. There are the ghosts who thought New Orleans was better than heaven, so they stayed. There are the catholic school girls who Can-Can at Christmas in their lovely plaid skirts. All of those things make me New Orleans. All of those things are things I think are unique and that honestly, if you don't live here you won't understand why those things are sacred. I am New Orleans because without those characters and without those places I would be a shell.

I am New Orleans because the Mississippi River flows in my veins, and I can only hear what the brass section plays. I only speak in hymns, and curses, and with cheer (WHO DAT!). I am New Orleans because I know those people and those places, those endless nights with endless faces. I am New Orleans because New Orleans found me. Sought me out. Welcomed me home.

Matty, age 16