Remembering 9/11

Remembering 9/11

It's hard to believe that is has been 10 years since that beautiful morning turned into such a horrific day. I remember where I was like it was yesterday. I was one month shy of turning 25 and on top of the world with my wedding just a few short months away, college almost complete, and fear was something that really wasn't in my vocabulary.

As I was heading to my first class of the day, I was listing to the radio and heard about the first plane striking the World Trade Center. I immediately thought "terrorist attack" if only because I could not fathom a pilot making THAT kind of error. Once I reached my school, it was there in the middle of class that we learned of the second plane hitting the other tower. You could just feel the room fill with uncertainty and confusion. It wasn't until the third plane hit the Pentagon that my teachers cancelled classes for the rest of the day.

I headed home to get my fill, and then some, of news coverage. I think this is the first time I ever really felt ravenous for information. Up until that day, the news was something for my parents...not for me. I watched in disbelief as I channel surfed looking for any new information to make sense of it all. Ten years later, I still can't make sense of it. No one can.

In the past ten years I have married, had children, traveled, worked...LIVED. So many others did not. I amazingly didn't know a single soul who perished in the tragedy of September 11, 2001. Yet, the events have changed me. They have changed our world.

I am now in a position of having to decide if I should fly, with my family, on the 10th anniversary of September 11th. Our tickets are booked and paid for, yet I am having a hard time making the choice to fly or drive to our destination. When we booked the flight, I didn't give much thought to the date...it was just another day. But, now that the media coverage has once again filled our television screens and I remember the devastation of that day, I am conflicted. Such a contrast to September 10, 2001 when fear was for other people, not 25 year olds who felt immortal.

What decision have I made? Well, yesterday it was to drive and just eat the cost of the tickets. Today, it is fly and not let "them" win. Tomorrow? I'm not sure. What weighs most on me right now is that I have knowledge about the evil that lives amongst us. Those who went to work, boarded that plane, or were visiting the twin towers for vacation had no idea that terrorists could dream up a plan so unimaginable. They didn't have the luck (or curse?) of knowledge of what COULD happen if they chose path A over path B that day. Many of them were just "25 year olds" who had the freedom and carefree living that youth brings.

To those who lost loved ones on that day, you are in my thoughts and my prayers and may peace have found you.