9/11

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I realized today it has been 22 years since 9/11 happened. I feel like I shouldn't even be old enough to remember 22 years ago but I am. 22 years ago I walked into art class with a friend to see our art teacher horror-stricken trying to process what she was hearing on the radio. I remember we asked her what was going on and she told us and then pulled out the TV and we watched as everything unfolded. I was 14 and a Freshman in high school. I still remember a lot of things from that with perfect clarity while I have forgotten other things as the years have passed but the main events I remember almost as if they happened yesterday. I remember the fear that surrounded everyone that day. We didn't know what it all meant. I remember how eery silent it was outside with no planes overhead. I remember this feeling of panic and fear of what was to come. I remember in all of my classes but one we watched the news. The class we didn't watch he said we didn't need to because we had been watching it all day in all of our other classes. I remember the way we got on the bus and the driver wanted to get us home as quickly and safely as possible. There was this fear that maybe people all over might get it into their heads to start doing things everywhere and that something could somehow make its way to us because no one really knew anything. I remember our band teacher asking us to write our feelings down to be read at the next football game and he'd have the best one be read aloud during halftime and we'd join the field with the rival team's marching band. Everyone was to be on the field and we would play from our hearts and we did. I remember the silence as everyone stood up and listened to us play. The band teacher told us to write during our classes because he wanted it by the end of the day and he said he'd talk to any teacher that yelled at us. I didn't participate. I didn't know what my feelings were. I was just in this feeling of shock. I felt like part of me wasn't even there and I was trying to process everything. That day was just so tragic and sad and I remember wondering how something like this happened. How can there be so much hate in the world? Why must innocent people die in order to make some kind of point? I think back on that day a lot and wonder about the survivors or the survivors' families. I think about the heroes and the amount of bravery that happened that day. I mostly think about how precious life is and how in the midst of such tragedy there are still good people out there helping others. There is still good in the world and while 9/11 definitely showed the bad that exists in the world it also showed how much good still existed. That was a day that our children only read about in history books but those of us old enough to remember it will remember it for the rest of our lives like it happened yesterday. We may lose some of the smaller details but we'll probably remember the bigger ones for the rest of our lives. Every year at this time we say "Never Forget" and honestly I don't think we ever will. One day there will be no one alive to remember and the history books will be the only things left to tell about that horrible day but right now we still remember.