10 yrs Ago Today

 Time stood still. We all remember ... we will always remember. Every Sep. 11th Craig and I watch the documentaries and news casts and tears still come to my eyes. The hurt and emotion is still there. I will always remember what I was doing that day and how I heard the news. I was a senior in high school. I was getting ready for school while listening to a local radio station. They broke into the music with news that the United States was being bombed. At the time they didn't know that it was actually American Airlines Flight 11 that had crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center killing hundreds of people. I was shocked and scared .. wondering if war was about to start. I ran upstairs and told my parents to turn on the news. I asked my dad is school was canceled. It wasn't. We watched the news that day at school. We watched CNN replay coverage as the second plane, United Airlines Flight 175, also crashed into The World Trade Center's South tower. We saw the explosion at the Pentagon. There was shock and fear and sadness in every one's eyes. I remember being worried that there would be more destruction in large cities across the states and selfishly being relieved that I lived in such a small town. Surely we wouldn't be hit. My classmates and I watched the brave fireman go into those buildings as others filed out, burned ... hurt. We saw debris falling from a hundred stories up and felt sick when we realized that some of that debris was people. We watched the news and saw the towers fall. We saw them crash to the ground and turn into dust. I will never forget that day... and every 9/11 I remember. Close to 3,000 American lives lost between the 4 hijacked flights, The Twin Towers, and the Pentagon. Dads that never came home, wives that were never seen again. My heart goes out to their families. Life is fleeting. We need to take the time to smile, to laugh, to be with our families because it could all end in an instance. I'm thankful for the country that I live in and all the freedoms it offers. I'm thankful that I know that my family can be together forever.