9/11/01...

... Where were you?

I honestly don't remember much about September 11, 2001. I was in second grade. I remember the school sending me home early, and I knew something bad was going on, but I don't think I really understood what was happening. I don't remember watching it on the news, seeing footage, anything. Later, of course, I understood the significance, but it never really hit me until yesterday.

We watched a video at the end of history class yesterday. I don't know what it was called, or I would post a link to it. Somehow, never in the last nine years have I seen actual footage of 9/11... until yesterday. I thought I wasn't going to cry until it came to footage of one of the towers juxtaposed with a man from the inside talking to an official outside.

"Are you alright?" the official says in a stressed voice."

"Yeah, we're on the tenth floor. There's three of us and two broken windows."

And before he can say anything else, you see the building collapsing. And hear him screaming. And that's when I lost it.

It got worse when they showed pictures of the people jumping. What would possess someone to jump from a ONE HUNDRED AND TEN story building? Fear. Knowing that the alternative was burning to death.

And then there was footage of the first plane hitting the towers. The inferno that came behind it as it crashed through the buildings. And you realize there were people on that plane, and people in that building. It's horrifying. There's not a better word for it. 9/11/01 inspired exactly what the attackers hoped to inflict upon the American people: terror.

As we were walking out of class, one of my friends, very quietly, through tears, said, "I knew nine people."

My history teacher had a relative that was a firefighter. His family buried an ax, because that was all they could find of him.

I don't know anyone who was killed that day, but I can feel at least a little bit of the pain. We all value human life, even if that life has no ties to us. We all feel the horror and pain that comes with immense tragedy. We all feel the loss of the over THREE THOUSAND people we lost that day.

This isn't just another day, and I beg you not to think of it as such. Nine years ago today, our country, perhaps even our world, changed forever. My brother was a toddler. He can't remember life before the War on Terror, and I just barely can. I was watching that footage and thinking, that's the worst. That's what men and women are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan to keep from happening to me. And you. And our families. Our friends. They're going through hell on earth to make sure you and I don't have to.

Take the time to thank a soldier today.

At 8:40 a.m., September 11, 2001 was a normal day. By 8:45a.m., it was too late for many to say goodbye.

Take the time to tell the people in your life how much you love them. Take the time to tell somebody about Christ. Take the time to ask forgiveness... or give it. Take the time to get down on your knees and THANK GOD for everything that you have.

Tomorrow's not promised.

Never forget.