Lizzie de la Houssaye

I am one of five children

With two children, my parents were well past the days of baby books when I was born. A few years passed and my parents divorced. I do not remember very much since I was so young but it has impacted my life in the long run. My dad and I are not very close, and I have just recently, in the past few years, created a strong relationship with my step-dad. My mom and I are also incredibly close. She keeps herself very busy teaching at Metairie Park Country Day School, where I attended for 11 years, and caring for five children, ages 7 to 27. I am the exact middle of all five children.

When my sister, Catherine, was born on Jan. 7, 1997, I was excited to no longer be the youngest child. Then, 4 years later, my mom made me even happier when my youngest brother, John, was born. This event also moved me to the middle child, or as my family likes to say, “the forgotten child.” My mom and my step-dad brought the baby home and I waited patiently for my time to hold him. As I held John in my arms, I realized the strength of the situation. I was finally old enough to realize that my family was important to me. Just recently, my family realized this same thing when my sister Elaine’s life was knocked out of place.
After a two-year battle with neuroendocrine cancer, Elaine’s husband, Frank, died at 28 years old. In the beginning of my senior year of high school, my dad called me at school to tell me that we must leave immediately for Mobile, Ala., Frank’s hometown. I didn’t realize the severity of the situation until I found out that Frank only had 30 days to live. His family and mine were beyond upset. When 30 days passed, we were all surprised at how well Frank was progressing with his chemotherapy. It looked as though things were looking up and Frank was going to recover completely. It wasn’t until a few months before Christmas that he had run out of options. He tried every treatment that the doctors had suggested but the cancer spread too much. The decision was to stop treatment and let Frank rest in his final days. Dec. 26, 2007, Frank passed away. Six months later, Elaine is slowly but steadily getting back on her feet, and our relationship is more like best friends rather than sisters. I think it has also helped that we don’t see each other all of the time since I am in Baton Rouge.

I decided to go to LSU my senior year of high school. I graduated with a small class of 60 people and only three of them decided to join me to become one of 30,000 students. I decided to rush a sorority in order to meet new people and ended up in Kappa Kappa Gamma. I have met many friends who I am sure will remain close even after we graduate. I chose to major in business at first because I thought that it would be very broad. What I wasn’t expecting was the high skill level demanded for the classes. I quickly changed my major to mass communication, hoping it would be a little more laid back. I have found that it is exactly what I was looking for and am now very intrigued.

In high school, history was my favorite subject. My teacher for three years, Mr. Beachy, knew everything about what we were learning and sucked you into the topic as well. Even though history has nothing to do with mass communication and even less with advertising, I feel as though Mr. Beachy has prepared me to be interested and prepared for what is to come in my future career.
In the near future, I would like to be working at an advertising agency in somewhere other than New Orleans. After I have moved away for a few years and I have “seen the world,” I would like to move back to New Orleans and also work for an advertising agency.