Parker DeFreese

Every year since I was born, I have gone to New Orleans to celebrate Mardi Gras with my entire family. I look forward to this trip all year because I get to eat the amazing food that New Orleans has to offer and I get to experience the chaos of Mardi Gras. My dad is from New Orleans and he talks about it to his friends all year. He is in the biggest parade of Mardi Gras, known as Endymion. Last year, I turned 18 and I was finally able to ride in the parade with him. It is a six mile parade route traveling all the way through the streets of New Orleans and it ends in the Super Dome. Doing this was the most surreal thing I have ever experienced because of how populated the streets were surrounding the parade. Mardi Gras is actually celebrated as a holiday there, so every street we went through had people yelling for beads as far as my arm could throw. The crowd noise was unbelievable the entire duration of the eight hours it took to ride through New Orleans. Going to Mardi Gras is so important to me because it is something that few people outside of Louisiana ever get to experience. It is something that only I do and I love everything about the city of New Orleans. The pride in the city is something I also really appreciate because everyone is so welcoming and outgoing. Mardi Gras has the power to bring together people from all backgrounds and this leads to the entire town becoming one big community. I went to Mardi Gras this past February with some of my friends and they could not believed that they had lived their whole life without experiencing the cultural richness of New Orleans. I am excited to bring even more friends to Mardi Gras next year.