Because it deserves to stand alone, away from my usual frivolty
I'm Feeling: 
contemplative
Raise your hand if you can't believe that the WTC Tragedy is already 8 years ago.
I'll never forget the day that it happened. I was a freshman in high school, sitting in history class, when our principal came running down the hall. He popped his head into the room,
"Do anyone's parents in here work at the World Trade Center?" A very real concern in our neck of the woods, where many people commute to NYC daily.
After getting a general "no" in response, he was off running again, and the class started buzzing. This was only after the first plane had hit, and nobody knew what was going on yet.
The school for the rest of the day was like a zombie hall. We didn't go home early, as some school districts did, but we sat in class and watched and listened to the news all day. We watched footage of both the first and second planes crashing over and over again in dead silence, lights off. Some wept, and some were numb.
I'll never forget how for days afterward, I got nervous every time I saw a plane fly overhead. Or how I came home and found out that my dad was supposed to be on call at the firehouse, but thankfully couldn't because he was out due to a knee injury. Or how my uncle was supposed to be at a meeting there by 9:00 that morning, but that the meeting was thankfully called off until 12:30 and he wasn't anywhere near the city when the planes struck. If that's not divine intervention I don't know what is.
But most of all, I'll never forget the hatred and the foolishness and fear. I'll never forget how one of my very best friends, a devout Muslim, along with others in the school, was basically persecuted and threatened by her peers. This girl would never hurt a fly, and was the most modest and moral person I know - still is! And here I was, out with pneumonia, talking to her on the phone a week later about a project we had to do together - only to find out that she had been so threatened following the terrorist attack that a security guard had to follow her around school for a week before her parents pulled her from school altogether to be homeschooled for the rest of the year.
It breaks my heart still to think about it, 8 years later. If I teach my children and students nothing else, it will be tolerance in the face of adversity. Keep an open mind, and don't take out your fears on innocent bystanders.
contemplative
Raise your hand if you can't believe that the WTC Tragedy is already 8 years ago.
I'll never forget the day that it happened. I was a freshman in high school, sitting in history class, when our principal came running down the hall. He popped his head into the room,
"Do anyone's parents in here work at the World Trade Center?" A very real concern in our neck of the woods, where many people commute to NYC daily.
After getting a general "no" in response, he was off running again, and the class started buzzing. This was only after the first plane had hit, and nobody knew what was going on yet.
The school for the rest of the day was like a zombie hall. We didn't go home early, as some school districts did, but we sat in class and watched and listened to the news all day. We watched footage of both the first and second planes crashing over and over again in dead silence, lights off. Some wept, and some were numb.
I'll never forget how for days afterward, I got nervous every time I saw a plane fly overhead. Or how I came home and found out that my dad was supposed to be on call at the firehouse, but thankfully couldn't because he was out due to a knee injury. Or how my uncle was supposed to be at a meeting there by 9:00 that morning, but that the meeting was thankfully called off until 12:30 and he wasn't anywhere near the city when the planes struck. If that's not divine intervention I don't know what is.
But most of all, I'll never forget the hatred and the foolishness and fear. I'll never forget how one of my very best friends, a devout Muslim, along with others in the school, was basically persecuted and threatened by her peers. This girl would never hurt a fly, and was the most modest and moral person I know - still is! And here I was, out with pneumonia, talking to her on the phone a week later about a project we had to do together - only to find out that she had been so threatened following the terrorist attack that a security guard had to follow her around school for a week before her parents pulled her from school altogether to be homeschooled for the rest of the year.
It breaks my heart still to think about it, 8 years later. If I teach my children and students nothing else, it will be tolerance in the face of adversity. Keep an open mind, and don't take out your fears on innocent bystanders.