I remember when 9/11 happened. I was in my dorm room my freshman year of college getting ready for my English class. A neighbor down the hall had come down to tell us about it and I remember turning the TV on and sitting down on my futon with my roommate to watch right when the second plane hit. I remember the moment I realized it wasn’t an accident, that it was an attack on our country. I made the decision that I wasn’t going to class even before we were notified that class was cancelled. How do you go to English class when your country is being attacked? I remember being glued to the television for hours that day. And the weeks to come. I downloaded remembrance songs and made a CD of them. Yes, yes I did. Music is how I have always “dealt” with things. And listening to Lonestar singing “One More Day” while President Bush’s speech on the war on terror was inserted in parts was my way of dealing with it. Of processing it. A few months later we went to NYC on a church trip for Memorial Day weekend (how fitting!). Everywhere you went there were makeshift bulletin boards set up on street corners, Grand Central Station, the parks, etc. of people who were still missing. All those faces of someone’s mother, someone’s son, someone’s husband that didn’t come home that night. I think every generation has their “Where were you when…” moments. I will always remember when the World Trade Center buildings were attacked. I will remember those images forever.
I will now, thanks to our military, always remember where I was when I found out the mastermind behind those attacks, Osama Bin Laden, was killed. When justice was served. Craig and I had a late night last night. Our pipe in the front yard busted and he’d been outside with my dad trying to repair it. I remember crawling in the bed and setting my alarm. Figured I’d look at Facebook before turning off the light to go to sleep and that’s when I noticed EVERYONE’S status updates. Thank you social media for keeping me in the loop. I jokingly said to Craig, “How does your WSBTV app not alert you of this?!” He is forever getting a distinct news update beep on his phone. And will turn to me to tell me the latest - that Lindsay Lohan is going back to jail or there was a drug bust down the road. But Bin Laden is killed and he gets nothing?!
What a great feeling for our country. For the loved ones of the faces I saw on the makeshift bulletin boards almost 10 years ago. For our military. The ones who have fought and who are now home. For the ones that are still there. And for their families. If even for a brief moment - no matter what your political views, race, religion, etc. - our country is united much like we were 10 years ago under much different circumstances.
