on friday, i had a student ask me why september 11th happened. my initial reaction was shock and from there i moved right along and explained it to her. globalization, terrorist organizations, all of it. as my day went on, i kept thinking about her and her question. i had this weird question mark in my head- i didn't get why i was being asked that question and soon, slowly but surely, it hit me. That horrible day was going to be having its 10 year anniversary in a couple of days. TEN YEARS. and all the pieces fell into place. my sweet student was so young 10 years ago. i was in high school, senior year, and i will never forget that day. we hear at home and at school, a great deal of our day went to different news stations. i will never forget the horror i felt in my heart. i was young too, but old enough to understand what was taking place AND more so, that hatred is such a real thing and such an ugly thing. i remember feeling so brokenhearted and even this morning as my husband and i are sitting here watching the ceremony that is going on, my heart is still hurting and i'm fighting back the tears and it feels like maybe two years have gone by since that day.
i don't know if it will ever really feel like it was 10 years ago, or 15 years ago, or 25 years ago. i don't know why, but with this one thing, it doesn't feel like it happened so long ago. it feels like it is staying really close to us, following closely or something. and maybe that is because we have a responsibility to keep it fresh and to remember and to share it with those who were young or perhaps not even there when it took place. it's a history thing. if history is cyclical, which i believe it is, we must remember things like this and pass it down and learn from them and do what we can to bring about change.
i hope you take a little bit of time to just remember those who lost their lives on such a dark day. one of many dark days in our history but more than deserving of a little bit of our time.
that's all. i know my thoughts may be a little bit incomplete but i don't think anyone out there really has complete thoughts about something like this. thanks for reading.
