I left home to support my sister in her efforts to present a music festival. She lives on the other side of the world, and I went to visit her, not wanting to leave and feeling like I was leaving home against my will. However, I wanted to show her my support because she is my only sister.

So I boarded the plane in mid-August, and hated the long flight. I arrived, tired and hungry. I left my husband two years ago, alone, in our old New Orleans house.

I was all set and ready to perform for my sister for the music festival on Sunday morning when I received a call from Chicago. The hurricane was predicted to hit our city, and many people had already evacuated, but my husband chose to stay behind. He could not get a call to me on the other side of the world, but he could call his cousin in Chicago. He gave his cousin a message for me, that he would be just fine, and not to worry.

As the days went on, I finally took the stage in front of hundreds of Europeans, and I realized. thanks to CNN that New Orleans was under water.

I performed, hoping that my husband would survive. And I performed perfectly. The audience stood and applauded. I left the stage and went straight to the TV. I saw the street sign near my home, on Humanity Street, but nothing below it, except water.

In the days that followed, I found out that my house, my car, my clothes, my furniture, everything that I’d left behind was gone. but not my husband. He survived by riding on the rear bumper (后保险杠) of a VW bus,, holding on to the overhead luggage rack, in the pouring rain, down the highway from New Orleans, halfway to Baton Rouge. The rest of the journey was a long walk, but he survived.

By the first week of September, I flew back to the Baton Rouge airport, and hugged my husband. Since then, our relationship has grown deeper; we have completely rebuilt our house, bought a new car, bought new furniture and new clothes and joined an inspirational, spirit-filled community.

On March 1, Dr. Dituri began a project to stay for 100 days at a special hotel called Jules’s Undersea Lodge 30 feet under the ocean surface in a conservation area in Key Largo.

The farther you go below the ocean’s surface, the greater the pressure. Dr. Dituri wanted to learn how this pressure would affect the human body over time. He believes that high pressure could help people live longer and stay healthier as they get older. It could also help doctors treat different medical problems, including brain injuries.

While he was living underwater, Dr. Dituri still stayed busy daily according to his schedule. He often exercised in the morning. He kept teaching his college classes virtually and had online chats with over 5,500 students from 15 different countries. He also worked with ocean experts to figure out ways to preserve the ocean. He even had a number of visitors who dove down to spend a little time with him.

On June 9, De. Dituri returned to the surface with a new world record, beating the old record of 73 days. Many friends, family and other supporters were there to greet him and celebrate his success. Doctors quickly checked him out to make sure he was okay. Actually, Dr. Dturi went through several big changes. For one thing, he became 1.3 centimeters shorter during his time in the higher undersea pressure. Sleeping much better, his health greatly improved in a couple of ways. Dr. Dituri and his team plan to study the information they collected during the project. In November, Dr. Dituri will speak at an important medical meeting in Scotland about the discoveries the scientists made during the project.

Dr. Dituri says his favorite part of the project was talking with young people. “Who knows?” he said. “Maybe one day, one of them will come back and break the record we just set. My greatest hope is that I have inspired a new generation of explorers and researchers to push past all boundaries.”

Mr. Smith, the professor at my business class, had a unique way of going over the answers to our weekly tests. For each question, he would ask a random student for their answer and then continue to grill (盘问追问) him/her, forcing him/her to defend that answer. It was certainly a memorable way to review. How I wished I’d been a more experienced student and got used to the professor’s grilling! I wasn’t, though.

But in my anatomy (解剖学) class, Dr. Cuddy introduced “high power” and “low power” body positions, saying “high power” positions involve taking up much space and making yourself look big, while “low power” poses, in contrast, involve making yourself look small, keeping your arms and legs crossed and held close. People tend to see others with high power poses as natural leaders, and are more willing to hire them. Her research finding was that spending just two minutes standing in a high-power pose increased a person’s feeling of power and self-confidence. She wanted us to try it out.

On my next quiz-review day, instead of bending over my book studying quietly, I sat up straight and spread out my books and notebooks on the entire surface of my desk. When our teacher asked if anyone had any questions about the material before we began our quiz review, I raised my hand.

The effect was surprising. My professor answered my question as if talking to a colleague, and I had a wonderful feeling of calm. Suddenly, I realized that the important thing was that I was participating. I just needed to engage fully in the class and learn.

Today, before a presentation or a test, I spend a few minutes “thinking big” — taking up space and being seen. It calms me down and when I do, my best always turns out to be pretty good.