9/11
Eleven years ago today, I was getting ready to walk out my front door when my mom got a phone call from my dad. He had heard a report on the radio that one of the twin towers was hit by a plane, and asked her to turn on the TV and find out if it was a hoax. The news channel had an image of the towers up and there was the plane coming in and crashing. Little did we know that it was the second one. I will never forget watching that plane crash into the tower live. The fear and confusion as the broadcasters watched it happen. I think I spent the next twenty minutes standing, with the door still open, watching what was happening. We always say 'never forget' yet so many of us push those violent images from our heads. We go about our lives pretending that our world is safe, and ignoring the soldiers that haven't seen their families in months because they are fighting to keep that from happening again. I was only fourteen, and although I didn't join as soon as I could, I think that image, and those voices were always in the back of my head. On the toughest days of training, I pictured those towers burning, and suddenly everything I was going through was worth it again.