September 11, 2001

(This is a late post, as it's almost the end of the day, so I do apologize. But it's taken me a long time to try and figure out my thoughts.)

In September 2001, I had just moved to a new state (Maryland) and a new school system (yet again). I was starting second grade in a place that I barely knew, and I was terrified. We started school after Labor Day, like most military schools, and everything was fine.

My teacher was very nice. Most of my classmates weren't jerks.

On September 11th, something happened. We could all tell that the teachers were nervous about something. Then someone turned on Mrs. Ruby's TV, and we saw pictures of smoke and flames. The TV was turned off, and parents were notified to STAY AT HOME AND WAIT FOR THE BUSES. We were being dismissed early, but we didn't know why.

The instructions didn't stop parents from storming the school and trying to check out their kids, though. I'm not sure how the principal handled that (they had been told to wait at home, after all), but somehow things got sorted.

At home, Mom was watching the TV in absolute shock. I saw more smoke and flames. Buildings were on fire. The news people were going crazy.

Mom sat and watched the television that whole afternoon. I think she sent my sister and I to go play upstairs, but I can't remember exactly. I do remember thinking that there was something not right about any of this. It was terrifying.

I eventually figured out that something absolutely terrible had happened that day. People had died. Bad people had purposefully killed a lot of people just because they wanted to. And I couldn't understand it.

I grew up with this war.

My dad was deployed when I was in sixth grade. He missed that whole year of my life. Thankfully, he never got deployed more than once, but we were still so afraid that he would be. 

In twelfth grade, my AP Gov teacher showed us videos of the day. It was the first time I had seen this footage - I didn't remember much more than the smoke and flames and crazy news people from second grade. 

This...this was just horrific. People were jumping. You could hear the sounds of the bodies hitting the pavement. We watched home video of people filming the planes hitting one tower, then moments later the plane hitting the other. The entire classroom was silent. We were in shock. We knew this had happened, but I don't think that any of us had actually watched this footage until then. 

To all of the lives lost on that day...

We will never forget you. 

To all of the lives lost since then...

You will be remembered for your bravery. Sometimes the people that you are dying for don't respect you, don't appreciate what you're doing, but in the end, they'll realize what you gave up so that they could be free to walk these streets.

To all service members, thank you for what you've done.

To those brave rescue personnel who went out on the streets of New York and rescued people, sometimes at the cost of their own lives, thank you.

We will never forget.
We will always remember.
And life will never be the same.