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From NPR News. This is weekend edition. I’m Lee Hanson.

I believe in mystery.
I believe in family.
I believe in being who I am.
I believe the power of failure.
And I believe normal life is extraordinary.
This I believe.

Today’s This I Believe essay began its life one year ago as a journal entry. Its writer Robin Baudier later sent it to us. Baudier is a 25-year-old graduate of T University. She and her extended family live in New Orleans. Here’s our series curator, independent producer, Jay Ellison.

When Robin Baudier wrote her essay last year, she was living in a FEMA trailer with her family. One night in September 2006 she began to write in the present tense, trying to capture her contradictory feelings and see if they added up to a belief. When we recorded her recently reading this essay, she said the feeling of that time came right back to her. And although her circumstances have changed somewhat, her belief hasn’t. Here is Robin Baudier with her essay for This I Believe.

I believe in strange blessings. I’ve never been in such good shape. I’ve never spent so much time outside. I caught the last three sunsets in a row and unless I’m mistaken, I’ll catch the one tonight. I’ve never felt so close to my family. I’ve never felt so sure that I was doing everything right. I lived in the FEMA trailer with my parents, I've moved home from L.A February before last quitting the job that taken me almost a year miserable internships to get to make sure first hand that my family was OK.

Now I work on my dad’s house on the weekends and at its dental laboratory during the week. Shutting the curtain on the bunk-bed area does not always cut for privacy. So I spend a lot of time outside exercising the dog, and just try to get away from people. It take out on a lavvy and run to get rid of all my frustration of not being able to have a job that would allow me to afford rent. I run to get out when I have been stuck inside, reading to escape from life, not even able to sit up straight on my tiny bunk. I run the feel that I am doing something when I am overwhelm by all the things I can’t do anything about.

The reason I caught the sunset yesterday is that we have been waiting for two weeks for FEMA to come to fix the leak in our plumbing. I was so frustrated with running out of towel to turn the water off and mopping at the floor with the rotating assortment to towels that we have hung outside the trailer that I decided to put on my bathing suit and shampoo under the hose. But God, there was a beautiful sunset last night!

I know it may sound strange that I am indirectly describing Hurricane Katrina as a blessing since it took my families home and covering from it has taken over our lives. But I love my awful life so much right here now. And I find it hilarious when I am unable to convince anyone else of it
I make less than the people working at Popeyes. I repeated have to suffer the indignity of telling people that I live with my parents. But I have finally got rid of back pain that the doctor always told me was from stress. I occasionally have weekends when I realize I am building a house of my dad, which I used to dream about when I was six and watching Bob Billow with him. And I am back where I belong. No longer kidding myself that there is anywhere else I want to be. I believe in strange blessings because taking away my house, brought me home.

Robin Baudier with her essay for This I Believe, originally written as a diary entry one year ago. Baudier’s family still lives in the FEMA trailer. She is found an apartment in New Orleans and continues to work as a dental technician for her father. The whole family is working to gather to rebuild their house in New Orleans hoping to be done by Christmas. Baudier says that by New Orleans standards, she and her family are the lucky ones.

Everyone is invited to write for our series at npr.org/thisibelieve. You can find more and read what thousands of others have written. For This I Believe. I’m Jay Ellison.

Next week on npr.org, a This I Believe essay from listener T Susan Chang of Livery Massachusetts on her belief in the analog world. This I Believe is independently produced by Jay Ellison, Dan Gaterman, John Cracker and Vicky Merrick. Support for this i believe comes from Potential Entertainment.

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