There are major events that people will ask where were you when?
….the assassination of Regan?
….when the shuttle Challenger blew up?
….on 9/11?
I remember, I was at Mark’s parents house, getting ready to go to collage, the house phone rang and for some reason I answered it (since I was the only one in the house) it was my soon to be Mother in Law crying telling me to turn on the news and go find her husband out in the field and bring him in. I remember watching the the smoke billowing out of tower one and listening on the radio while driving to school after the plane hit tower two. Classes were basically canceled and we watched the news all day. I remember being scared and not really knowing what was happening and how big it really was.
Being a 1/2 a continent away and not having any family or friends in New York, I remember thinking it was really sad but didn’t affect me. I honestly think I was in shock along with the rest of our nation. As days past and the numbers of deaths rose and panic did not subside I realized the true power of those 3 planes. I realized that although I didn’t lose a loved one I was still impacted.
This is my country and as much as I don’t always agree with the leadership (republican or democrat) we are still amazingly blessed to live here apposed to most other countries. I choose to address this the way I address most of my life, what can I learn from this?
I learned that we, as a nation, can come together and support each other to help us get through some of the roughest moments we can remember. That as much as we still feel the separation of races and classes, that when it comes down to it we can work together. I learned that by-and-large we as a country believe that God exists, we may not know what to do with him or where to put him but somewhere deep down we belive in Him. I’ve also learned (and have been reminded so many times since then) to not let a day go by taking those I love for granted.
10 years later and we as a nation are still struggling to understand exactly how much of what is going on today is because of that day. But we all know that 9/11 changed our lives.
What did you learn from 9/11?
The infamous photo by Thomas E. Franklin from the The Bergen Record of Passaic, New Jersey.
Great post!
It’s amazing how so many of us remember what we were doing on the day of the tragedy. It’s as if the memory of that day is seared into our minds, right? You are right about how 9/11 changed all our lives regardless of whether or not we were in New York or had loved ones there. I think that 9/11 is the only time of the year when everyone in the USA feels truly united in spirit.