I Remember...

10 years ago, the world changed as we knew it.

10 years ago, I sat in my 8th grade classroom at Portville Baptist Christian School, going about the typical Tuesday morning activities.  That was, until the school secretary came into the classroom, and informed my teacher of what was going on.  She did her best to explain to us what had happened, but I'll admit, I didn't realize the vastness of this, until I got home from school that day.

See, the school I went to didn't have TV or Internet.  (It was in a Church, and didn't get internet for another year or so.)  I tried to look things up in an encyclopedia, but they didn't give me clarity to the situation at hand.  I was also "picturing" another "style" of building in my mind, and boy was I off.

I remember hearing on the radio about the amount of potential lives that had been lost when the buildings fell.  As soon as I got home from school, I turned on the TV and sat amazed at the destruction that had taken place on my nations land.  The visual images of what really took place that day are forever in my mind.

I remember crying.  Crying for the innocent lives lost, for the hatred shown towards us, and the heroes that were slowly emerging from the numerous situations. They gave me hope, that we as a nation, would over come this. That we would recover.

And now....fast forward 10 years.  I can't believe that much time has gone by so far, so fast.  9-11 has since become a humble day for me.  I tear up when I hear "America the Beautiful" and "The Star Spangled Banner".  The love I have for this country, for the freedoms I have here, are so imbedded in who I am, that I struggle to grasp what this life would be like if we didn't have them.

So here, as I sit 10 years away from the greatest tradgedy in my life-time, I want to say thank you.  Thank you to those who risked their lives on that day, trying to help and save others.  Thank you to the first responder firefighters, police men, and all the every-day people aboard flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania.  Thank you also to the service men and women fighting around the world, that I might continue to have the freedoms in America I am so accustomed to.  If it wasn't for men and women like you, the world would be that much more different.

So as you sit here reading this and reminiscing about the past 10 years, would you please pause for just a minute, and remember those who died, and those who are currently sacrificing their lives for you??  If it wasn't for them, we might not be here.