On Feb. 10, 2024, people were yelling. Others were throwing things. And some were laughing. 

Down St. Charles Avenue, there were colorful beads swinging from oak trees and loud bands marching. Natalie Seeboth stood amongst the chaos. While the date on her iPhone said 2024, her eyes only saw 1984. 

In her eyes she is 6 years old. She is standing with her parents watching the floats, five times her size, roll past. 

In her eyes she is 10 years old being allowed to wander through the streets of New Orleans at Mardi Gras for the first time with just her friends.

In her eyes she is 12 years old dancing in the street with people from all backgrounds, embraced by the culture. 

In her eyes she is 14 years old going to the night parades, surrounded by all the other teenagers feeling the freedom. 

In her eyes she is 17 years old, spending the last Mardi Gras in her home city before leaving for college. She is watching the floats roll by, watching her childhood roll by, and her home with them. 

She didn’t know she wouldn’t come back; in fact, she assumed she would. Her family was there, her community. 

“I felt like my family was New Orleans.” she said.

But she met a guy from another state. She found a little house in another city. She got a good job and adopted a dog. 

She decorated a nursery twice. And soon, her family became somewhere else. 

Of course she went back to New Orleans to visit. A tourist in her own city. But it didn’t feel like that. It felt like she was at home. Wrapped in the rich culture, listening to the bands play, and children yell, she was 6 years old, home and perfectly complete. 

In this photo Natalie Seeboth, 5 years, stands in her Mardi Gras mask and costume.

She is prepared with a plastic bag to hold all the throws that she catches.