I learned that the only way to persevere through trouble is to find silver linings in storm clouds. They're everywhere you turn in Lafayette.

The day after the Lafayette shootings, I spent three hours on air talking to the people of Acadiana in order to make some type of sense of what happened. Mostly, I just tried to get through the day like everyone else who had to try to work through the shock. I cried on air, which I tried to hide and probably failed miserably at doing.

On my way across town to spend some time with somebody I love, I stopped at the intersection of Ambassador Caffery and Johnston Street (the worst intersection in Lafayette) and rolled my windows down. I was listening to the song "Lean On Me" by Bill Withers. This is where the heart of Lafayette comes back into play.

The car next to me rolled their windows down and asked, "What radio station is that?" I responded by simply holding up my phone and saying, "All me."

The driver and his wife then bobbed their heads in satisfaction. The next time I looked over at these two complete strangers, they asked me to turn the song up, so I did.

We sang the chorus together. I pretended to pound the keyboard on my steering wheel along with the man in the car next to me. His wife laughed at both of us, then the light turned from red to green. We waved at each other with a smile, rolled our windows back up and drove away. For about fifty seconds, three people in a city of grief all felt normal again.

Since that moment, I can't listen to that song without the hair sticking up on the back of my neck. I replayed it three or four times after I parked just to bask in the reflective catharsis.

"Lafayette Strong" might be a hashtag, but it's much more than an internet trend. It truly is an aspect of our great city. When we band together, it's a thing of beauty.

Grief is a real part of loss. It is proper to shed tears. Death doesn't fight fair, so there isn't any real formula for overcoming it. It takes time. Day by day, the city of Lafayette will come together to find a return to normalcy. Our city is built on love, and that is the first aid our city will recover on.

We will return to the good times, Lafayette. That's not an inspirational message. It's a fact.

With that being said, I still can't drive down Johnston. I'm not ready yet. It will take a lot longer to get back into the Grand-16 Theater. But that doesn't mean I won't be back. I couldn't let John Houser have the satisfaction of ruining one of the safest, happiest places in my city.

My children will watch movies at the Grand-16. We will laugh together and eat popcorn. The movie will end, and all of us will go home happy.

That takes time to get to. We can get there together. Just remember to find the silver linings. Sadness can't stand it when you smile, and smiles come around a lot more often than storm clouds in Cajun country. We are Lafayette.

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