Thoughts on 9/11
7 years ago, I sat in a dorm room at Keene College in New Hampshire contemplating my next move. I was watching television and surfing the internet for plane tickets back to either Memphis or Colorado. I was just out of a very bad relationship, I had 500.00 to my name, my father had had 3 strokes and been hospitalized for a month and my grandfather had died a little over a month before. It was, by far, one of the most harrowing years of my life.
As I watched the news, I remember thinking "Wow, who paid Bryant Gumble to be in a terrorist movie?" I remember the plane flying right into the tower above his head and I remember, VIVIDLY, weeping on the floor. Just a few months before, I had just left New York, as I had spent the summer working for the Girl Scouts and running an overnight camp. Some of my girls were residents of the area, some of their mothers and fathers were in and out of the towers often. After I gained my composure, I saw college kids running to cars in droves to get to their family members because ceel phones and land line were down everywhere.
That night, we gathered in the Keene Circle and we sang and we prayed and we held hands and sang some more. To this day I cannot hear The Time of Your Life by Green Day without crying.
I remember. I remember helping with grief counseling and going to Ground zero to help clean up and offer first aid to those who needed help. I remember calling my parents two weeks later to ask come home. I remember crying everyday through the holidays, for my grandfather, for my family, for my friends and for the people who had suffered loss of any kind because of 9/11.
This day, while still sad, is a reminder of the good that still remains in this world. People rallying to help others. One of few times times in history that race and creed were insignificant. I hold that in my heart and mind today. I shoose to remember the good!
Where were you? And what will you choose to remember?