9/11

Nothing could have prepared me for the 6:45 am wake up call from my best friend and college roommate. She was wide awake and animatedly chattering about how a place had flown into a building just a few minutes before. Unsure what all the fuss was about, I followed her up the stairs of our college house to sit on the beat up couch with my 5 roommates. On TV, thick, black smoke was billowing from one of towers of the World Trade Center in NYC. As we watched, mouths open, a second plane flew into the other tower, sending a second plume of smoke into the blue sky. The news cast was going crazy as the series of events continued to unfold. Images of dust covered people running through debris-strewn streets, crushed vehicles, people launching themselves from windows 40 stories above ground, the collapse of first one then the second tower will linger in my memory for years to come. Two other commercial planes were hijacked - one was flown into the Pentagon in Washington D.C. and the second was crashed into the ground somewhere in Pennsylvania by passengers who caught wind of a terrorist plot.

That was 15 years ago and I can recall the morning clearly.

Of the six roomates with whom I lived, most had significant others and spent time at his or her apartment. Rarely were the six of us home at the same time, especially on a school morning. That particular morning, we were all home. And glued to the television. 

Classes were cancelled and no one was on the road to Moscow as I reported to work. I don't remember much of the rest of the day except that we all stayed tuned into the news. We chatted to make sense of the attack on our country, listened to our leaders promise to find the source of the attack, and prayed for those who were searching and needing to be found in the massive pile of rubble. I didn't personally know anyone who had been lost in the chaos and it felt....disrespectful...to return to work and school like normal the next day. I was in one piece, house intact, living in a small college town where the sun shone on the recently harvested wheat fields and my safety was never in question. Across the country, my fellow citizens had just had their world turned upside down.

Rescue Dog Transport at Ground Zero

I didn't love what happened on that day. I did love how our country came together, how being American meant something again, how we coalesced into a people proud to carry the Stars and Stripes. And I appreciate the memorial which was created in honor of the fallen.

Seeing the images from that day still puts a knot in the pit of my stomach for reasons I cannot fully understand. I am grateful for the sacrifice of so many - people and canine - who risked their lives for others. For the men and women who continue to serve our country in uniform and protect our freedom. And for that little pit that reminds me, at least once a year, that some things should not be taken for granted.