Remembering

11. September. 2001

On this day seven years ago, I walked into my math class at Pine Creek High School for first period.  The seemingly normal day began with a warm up problem and the same guy wandering in, tardy as usual.  Except he walked in and told the teacher he thought we should turn on the news.  This seemed an absurd suggestion until he said a plane had accidentally flown into a building in New York City.  Mrs. Velasquez turned on the television and we watched in silence as the second tower was hit. I remember the news anchors with their hands covering their mouths, at a total loss for words.  It was at this moment it became clear that this was far from accidental.  

September 11th made me feel vulnerable and small.  How quickly an event can change everything.  I remember the tears, the conversations with my friends and family that followed.  Because Colorado Springs is home to the United States Air Force Academy, Peterson Air Force Base, and NORAD, we were considered a likely target should another attack occur.  School was cancelled for a week and a half.  

The BBC is on in Cambibos (my favorite coffee shop in Oxford).  The families of victims are reading the names of their loved ones from a list that is 2,175 people too long.  Realizing that today is September 11th I got the choked up feeling, my heart decided it would relocate to my throat for a moment or two.  

I am thankful everyday that I was born in the United States.  I am grateful (more so now than ever before) that I can vote in the upcoming election.  Thankful for the First Amendment that lets me choose what to believe, and how to believe it.  For my freedom, opportunities, and rights.  Days like this are a great reminder of just how lucky we are.  A great time to tell those whom we love exactly that.  A reminder of all that can be accomplished with love and the notion that nothing is more patriotic than peace.  

Praying for Peace Among Nations and Peace Between Peoples,

kirsten