Remembering

Like many people today I spent some time thinking about how ten years ago today was the attack of 9/11. Like many people, I find it hard to believe that it has been ten years already. I think about all the things that have happened since then and where I am in my life and I am amazed by everything that has happened.

But like every year on this day I take a minute to think about how that day was through my eyes. What will I tell my grandchildren when they learn about that event in their history books and ask me how I felt while it was happening. I still remember that day very clearly in my memories.

It was a school day, I was a Senior in high school, and I woke up at the normal time in the morning to go to seminary. When I got out of bed to go through my morning routine, my dad called me into my parents room where they were already watching the towers burn. The first one was hit about 15 minutes before I woke up and the second one just as I was coming to find out what was going on. They filled me in on the information that they knew and as interested as I was I knew that I had to keep getting ready for my day even though I didn't really know how the day would go.

I remembering going to seminary but not what we were learning that day. By the time that I was out of seminary another plane had crashed into the Pentagon and Flight 93 had crashed somewhere random due to the valiant acts of the passengers aboard. Also the second tower hit had collapsed. We listened on the radio as my brother, sister, cousin and I drove to school. And then the first tower hit began to collapse.

When school started there was definitely a level of panic and shock that was blanketed all over the campus. No one could think to talk about anything else and the teachers gave us the opportunity to listen to the radio and watch the news on TV if we could get the TV to show the news. Mostly school TV's aren't able to show anything but the VHS that the teacher wants to show in class, but we had a couple of tech savvy students who were able to hook it up.

We watched the news coverage and speculated about if it was over or where they might hit next. What was going to happen to the country, the principal even gave us time out of class to sit and be with our friends. We couldn't believe how people were being effected but we did know that they must be hurting and our hearts and prayers went out to them and their families. We did have some student's family members that were part of California Search and Rescue that were called out to New York to help in the efforts of finding any survivors and that was scary, we worried for them and their loved ones. We prayed that they would come home safely.

But the day eventually passed and we grew together as a nation, our sorrow was as one and as they say we all mourned together. The stories of the people involved came in over the next few weeks and months and we listened, and we helped any way that we could. But we never forgot the feelings we had and the stories that generated from that tragedy.

A memorial at Ground Zero has been erected and we have experienced a war over this event. Finally it seems that after all this time things are settling down and we have been able to move forward from that day but never move on. We are at a point in the world where my friend, who is a grade school teacher, has only two students in her class that have actually heard of the event. But for those of us that experienced that day we will remember, just as our parents remember the day they watched man walk on the moon and as our grandparents remember the start of World War II.