How could it possibly have been thirteen years? Thirteen years. I woke up this morning thinking how clear and fresh in my mind this day thirteen years ago still is, as I know it is for all of you. I can remember so well the sadness and fear and uncertainty of that day, the disbelief that something so horrible could happen and the nervousness of where and when and if it could happen again.
It seems so real and so fresh, that is, until I realize that thirteen years ago, when I heard the vague news that “a plane ran into one of the Twin Towers,” before the word “terrorist” was a part of our vernacular, before we believed that something like this could happen on our own U.S. soil, I was leaning against my locker with my best friend after math class. And that I watched the second plane hit in the library of my high school.
I realized this morning that, in those thirteen years, I got to graduate high school, go to college, go to grad school, get married, have a baby, work, get a book deal, go out to dinner and have drinks with friends and watch the sun rise and set. And all of those people in that building and on those planes, the ones that thought it was going to be just another, regular day, they didn’t get to do all of those things. And that is such a poignant reminder of how special today is, of how important and fortunate putting on my son’s socks for school and sitting here drinking my coffee really is. Because you simply never know when an ordinary day will become a horrific page in some future decade’s history books.
So, today, I am really, really going to live. Focus on what’s important, not sweat the small stuff and, most important, remember all of those who don’t get to do that today and all of their families who relive that September 11 nightmare over and over and over again.
For all of you who work day in and day out to keep our families safe, to try to prevent the unthinkable from happening again, thank you, sincerely and deeply. You are heroes every, single day.
I hope that everyone has an amazing day full of deep breaths and savoring the small moments and being grateful! I know I will.
I too am so grateful to be alive on this day, I wrote a post about 9/11 last year from an ‘outsider’s perspective..http://buhayatbahay.blogspot.com/2013/09/remembering-911.html