It's been 10 years since the tragic events of September 11th happened. I find myself glued to the television every year watching footage of what happened that day. Some people might think, "Why? It's depressing and you were alive when it happened. Not only alive, but you were 16" Here's the thing, on that day in 2001, I was not old enough or mature enough to understand how this would affect our country. Believe me, I knew it was bad, I knew it was wrong but I did not understand the pain millions of people were going through.
On that morning, I woke up to get ready for school. My mom watches the news every morning. I should say she has it on because she never watches it's really just for noise in the house. She called my name out and yelled for me to go to her room. I ran over there and saw what was happening. The first plane had hit already and we were saddened. I thought at first that it was a tragic accident. While watching we were together staring at the screen as the second plane hit the other tower. I can only imagine I reacted in shock because I really don't remember what happened next. All I know is school was scheduled and I couldn't miss. To be honest, I don't remember other students talking about it other than "Did you see what happened?" It wasn't discussed as a terrorist act at all. For the rest of the day we went from class to class continuing to watch footage of the towers. Since I was driving my brother and I to school, we didn't even know the towers had fallen. It wasn't until my 2nd period class that we were watching the news that I heard the towers fell. Even then, I assumed everyone got out ok. Little did I know.
Every year that the anniversary comes up, I cry more than the year before. I pray harder than the year before. I feel pain more than the year before. I think what gets me most is knowing that people jumped to their freedom. They saw no way out and took their lives into their own hands. They made the ultimate decision to get it over with because they knew it was between that, burning alive, or being crushed to death by thousands of pounds of steel. There wasn't any hope for them. It hurts my heart to think what those innocent hardworking people had to go through. On top of that the families of the victims must have felt a pain like no other. They are a part of history now.
Then there are the firefighters. During a clip of a documentary of 9/11 I was listening to a survivor speak. He said the worst part wasn't the smoke, death, fire, heat, walking down 90 floors of stairs, dehydration, fear, sadness or pain it was looking into the eyes of the brave firefighters who KNEW they were climbing to their death. They knew. I don't know that I could be that brave. To walk into a building as big as that one to put out a fire knowing that it could collapse at any moment is the definition of heroic. Those brave firefighters deserve our unconditional love and appreciation.
So while I did not personally know anybody in the towers I know plenty who have suffered from the consequences. The men and women of our militay are serving their country and protecting our freedom so that we can sleep soundlessly knowing that we're safe.
Please take a minute to remember those who have fallen with the towers; our blessed angels. Please remember to educate your children on the events (at an appropriate age) because it bothers me to no end to hear people down talk the events that happened on that day. Please remember to appreciate the people in your lives. And most of all please remember to thank all of our servicememebers for risking their lives so that we can live ours.
EMM