Many Bow residents watched the news footage of the damage Hurricane Katrina inflicted on New Orleans in late summer 2005.

Adam Cantor lived it.

The recently graduated Bow High School senior and his family were living in New Orleans when the hurricane struck, and when their home was severely damaged, they moved to New Hampshire to start over.

The Cantor family received a call the morning of the storm, warning of its severity and urging them to leave their uptown New Orleans home. So the family packed three days of clothing and began heading toward Houston, where they had friends. The city had reached capacity and the road was closed. The Cantors drove to northern Louisiana, only about 50 miles from home.

After the storm, Cantor’s family returned to see their home destroyed, but for Adam it wasn’t a reality until he returned home a few weeks later.

“People can tell you things and you can see them on the news, but it didn’t hit home until then,” said Cantor. “That sinking feeling hit, and that was it. My folks went back very soon after, and I went back a little later. They told me we couldn’t live there anymore, but I hadn’t believed them. That was a sad day.”

The months following the storm were frustrating for Cantor as he attended three high schools in one year, before finding a home in Bow.

Coming into Bow High School a few months into his sophomore year seemed like a daunting task for Cantor.

“It seemed really hard at first to be accepted by people, but really it didn’t take much for people to notice me there,” he said. “The start was hard, because they knew each other and I was an outsider they didn’t really need. People were really quick to become friends.”

One of the difficult tasks Cantor was faced with was balancing the new friends he met in Bow with the friends he was forced to leave in New Orleans.

“History and remembering everything was huge for me. I had a lot of trouble and spent time trying not to forget things,” Cantor said. “I would try to remember all the names, places and people. Slowly, as I made new friends, I realized they weren’t going away. They were important to who I was.”

Cantor brought a bit of New Orleans to Bow as he taught a “Taste of New Orleans” cooking class to go along with the theme of his senior project.

Teaching the classes was a way for Cantor to return to his roots.

“New Orleans food is always my comfort food. Some have chocolate, I have jambalaya,” he said.

Cantor said graduation day was even more special for him, considering the changes he was forced to make.

“I do still feel like my friends in New Orleans were all ripped from me. It was another perspective moment because I came down and saw my friends’ graduation (in New Orleans),” he said. “Then to graduate with the new friends I had, I saw how they were separate but all equally important.”

This fall, Cantor will attend Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., and afterward he hopes to continue traveling.

From the moment Cantor and his family received a call that a category-5 storm was heading toward his home, he’s had to learn to deal with whatever was thrown at him.

“I’ve learned how important it is to evolve your circumstances and be prepared for new things,” he said. “Things happen that are beyond your control and you have to be willing to roll with the punches sometimes.”