Where Were You?

There are moments in your life where you never forget what you were doing when something significant occurred.  September 11, 2001 was one of those days.  The song Alan Jackson wrote called "Where were you when the world stopped turning?" is such a true reflection of how I felt that day.

I still remember that day being so caught up in what I had to get done.   There were work issues I was dealing with.  There was birthday party planning for our oldest.  Our youngest was due in December.  We also started a major renovation to our house on the morning of 9/11.

I remember getting a call from a co-worker that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center.  At that time everyone thought it was an accident.  For several hours afterwards, when it was obvious we were being attacked, I found it difficult to comprehend all of the events that were occurring.

By the mid morning the realization sunk in that this was a truly pivotal moment in our country.  So many people were impacted immediately by what was occurring.  A co-worker of mine had a husband in the reserve by the end of the workday he was shipping off to protect some undisclosed location.  We all felt scared, angry, hurt and confused.  Why was this happening?  

Each anniversary of 9/11 causes me to reflect on all of the feelings and emotions that we felt that day.  It still seems like yesterday even though it has been 12 years.  It's hard to believe this has happened long enough now that there are younger people who are too young to remember it.  They can only read about it in text books or watch videos about it.  My generation was too young to experience Pearl Harbor or the assassination of John F. Kennedy.  We read about it but it's not the same as living through it.

Several years after 9/11, I was at an FSU game and they had a beam from one of the World Trade 

Center towers.  I got to touch the beam.  All those emotions from that day came back to me in just that brief moment of seeing and touching that beam.

Unfortunately we will more than likely have many more  9/11 moments in our lifetime and our children's lifetime.  The uncertainty and evil in our world assures that.  I hope when that time comes we will react the way we did in 2001. We came together.  We helped each other out.  We were a lot nicer to each other.  It's unfortunate that it takes events like 9/11 for that to happen.  It's also unfortunate that this generosity and togetherness only lasts a short time before we go back to our old habits.

My hope and prayer is that we never forget what happened on 9/11.