By now, we have all heard about the shooting in Lafayette. In the midst of this awful tragedy, much goodness has been shown through the people who call the wonderful city of Lafayette home. I thought that sharing why I chose the University of Louisiana at Lafayette to be the place where I would spend my college years, I could reflect on why Lafayette has truly become a second home to me (and so many others)!
I came from a small high school that only had 428 people in it for my senior year which meant that I knew I wanted to go someplace where everyone knew each other. I also knew that I wanted to go to college to be a Mechanical Engineer. After a short process, I chose UL Lafayette as my college and home for the next four to six years.
What surprises me to this day is that I did not really know much else about Lafayette as a city besides that it had UL, and UL was a smaller college (comparatively that is). Since coming to college in the Fall of 2012, I have truly fallen in love with the city that is Lafayette. From the ever present chance to cajun dance, to the joie de vivre that everyone seems to have. Everyone in Acadia loves to have something to gather around, from the always hilarious study-guide seeking Trinity Woods, to going to the same bowl game for four consecutive years and winning every single one baby! People in Lafayette love to gather around a cause.
This is what has been truly shown within the past few weeks. It seems that everyone, regardless of political party, religion, or any other divisive factor were able to gather around this awful event and say something along the lines of “This is not Lafayette”. To show this point further, I saw two groups on facebook formed when the Westboro Baptist Church asking people to form a human barrier allowing the family members the time to grieve. The people of Lafayette wanted to help out those families as best they could, heck even Bobby Jindal said, “Let’s focus on these families.”
While those bullets did bring harm and death to those who were at the Theatre they also brought everyone together, showing that people do care about those who they may have not even knew before this incident showing that Lafayette is not only the happiest city in America, but the best place on Earth.
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord.
And let the perpetual light shine upon them.
And may the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
