"I Hear America singing, the varied carols I hear..."
i'm afraid i won't have time to sit down tomorrow and write the kind of entry i want to write in remembrance of 9/11, so i'm doing it a bit early.
when i think of september 11th i also remember, in particular, its two year anniversary. marc had just completed 10 months of duty in kandahar, afghanistan. he was flying home on 9/11/03. that day i spent in my little blue car, chugging down 95 for six hours to fort bragg, north carolina. i was engaged and hadn't seen my fiance in the better part of a year, and i was as terrified as i was excited. but it was the journey that i remember so vividly - across three states, every single car on the highway had their headlights on. i remember thinking that we were all participating in a national funeral procession.
the next day i turned 22.
less than a month later, i married marc and moved away into a life in the army.
for our three year wedding anniversary, marc and i traveled to new york city. this was the view out of our hotel, directly across the street from ground zero:
9/11 is hopelessly tied to these gigantic moments in my life. the beginning of my marriage, the day of my birth, the start of my life as an adult - all of these events are wrapped around this tragic memory. it is there in the back of my mind during these celebrations, always. each anniversary i take as seriously as the first one - it weighs as heavily on my mind as the day it happened. it is there reminding me how lucky i am to be alive - to have these experiences - to love these people.
it is a day to take nothing for granted.
when i think of september 11th i also remember, in particular, its two year anniversary. marc had just completed 10 months of duty in kandahar, afghanistan. he was flying home on 9/11/03. that day i spent in my little blue car, chugging down 95 for six hours to fort bragg, north carolina. i was engaged and hadn't seen my fiance in the better part of a year, and i was as terrified as i was excited. but it was the journey that i remember so vividly - across three states, every single car on the highway had their headlights on. i remember thinking that we were all participating in a national funeral procession.
the next day i turned 22.
less than a month later, i married marc and moved away into a life in the army.
for our three year wedding anniversary, marc and i traveled to new york city. this was the view out of our hotel, directly across the street from ground zero:
9/11 is hopelessly tied to these gigantic moments in my life. the beginning of my marriage, the day of my birth, the start of my life as an adult - all of these events are wrapped around this tragic memory. it is there in the back of my mind during these celebrations, always. each anniversary i take as seriously as the first one - it weighs as heavily on my mind as the day it happened. it is there reminding me how lucky i am to be alive - to have these experiences - to love these people.
it is a day to take nothing for granted.