My third week back at Lamar University was undoubtedly the strangest one yet. However, it wasn’t strange for the reasons that most people would think. It wasn’t the fact that I was still displaced from my home or that I had to constantly think about what Hurricane Harvey had done to my life. It was the fact that over the course of that week, I hadn’t really thought about that awful storm, or the damages that it had caused.

Lamar University didn’t feel like the refuge for emotionally and mentally battered students that it had been for the past several weeks. Instead, it seemed to return to what it was before Hurricane Harvey had left its mark. The university simply felt like a place to learn and grow. No one I was around really discussed the storm or even repairs, and I myself never seemed to bring up the storm that week.

In fact, until I sat down to write this article, I had momentarily forgot that it had even occurred. I’m unsure if it was the busyness of the week, or maybe some form of mental healing, but it just never seemed to enter my mind. All of the pain that accompanied the storm, along with the memories that had played like an unending movie in my head had all but vanished.

I didn’t originally plan for my week to be as busy as it turned out to be. I always knew I had two meetings, several interviews to film, at least an hour of footage to collect and my monthly school board meeting that I film for work. However, I wasn’t consciously aware of the workload, and the error in my scheduling until the tasks descended upon me like a tidal wave. I suppose this immense workload helped to occupy my mind, and keep out the unwelcome thoughts of hurricane damage and recovery.

I was also surprised that I never really made it out to my house this week. I did end up there after the RV arrived, which my father’s place of employment had leased for us to live in while our home is being repaired. Still, the thought of repairs never crossed my mind. There were some moments when I even forgot that my home was currently unlivable.

I’m somewhat hopeful that this past week is what I have to look forward to in the near future: To inhabit a world where I don’t have to be constantly enveloped in the utter despair that had sunken into my being in the first weeks of recovery. It is incredible just being able to exist in a place where I am able to create, and have something to do besides tearing up waterlogged floors and removing moldy drywall. However, even in these moments of wishful thinking, I know that my mind will not truly be at rest until my home is completely back to normal.