You’ve probably heard the old Cajun saying, Laissez le bon temps rouler (let the good times roll), and nowhere is this more applicable than in my beloved New Orleans, where I was born and spent my early childhood. My wife and I recently went down for Mardi Gras, and as we were caught up in the revelry, we marveled at the city’s resilience. In the five months prior, it had played host to three sold-out Taylor Swift concerts, endured the New Year’s Eve terror attack, welcomed the Sugar Bowl for the 91st consecutive year (albeit delayed a day because of the attack), withstood a historic winter storm that slammed the Gulf Coast and dumped 10 inches of snow on an area that rarely sees any, AND hosted the Super Bowl for a record 11th time, followed, of course, by Carnival season, with its eight weeks of celebrations. By all accounts, New Orleans got its butt kicked, and could have shut down any number of times, or at least slowed down, but it never did. In August of this year, it will be 20 years since Hurricane Katrina decimated the city, and New Orleanians showed the world how to rebound from adversity, rallying around their beloved Saints for the 2006 season just 13 months later. Clearly, nothing keeps NOLA down.

Text: Jeffrey Cohen