Life After...

I can't quite wrap my head around the fact that, ten years ago today, the world that we live in changed forever. There are a number of reasons that this puts me in a quandary...

Really, I don't feel old enough to have a ten-year-long perspective on anything. Sure, I have memories that go back much longer than that, but to have been old enough to really understand something so significant, and to see how it changed the world around me... It's just weird.

Also, I am in such a different place now than I was then. Not only am I physically not living in my parent's house, in a small southern Oregon town, but who I am, what I believe in, what I support, where my life has taken me... It's all so different than what the very naive 16 year old had planned for me.

Finally, I feel guilty. Guilty that I haven't done enough to demonstrate my appreciation for the sacrifices that people made that fateful day. Guilty that I don't take the time to thank our military, our law enforcement, our fire fighters, as much as I should.

I definitely haven't forgotten what happened on September 11, 2001. I remember waking up to my mom watching TV and seeing what was happening on the news. We weren't really sure what to think at that point, didn't know the magnitude of what was happening. I went school, and as the day progressed, things became more and more surreal. I remember sitting in debate class, listening to our policy debators talking about how these events would change the world forever. I remember thinking that these events were going to change the whole world forever. I remember going to journalism and watching the newscasts, marveling at how the reporters were able to keep their composure, even with such chaos unfurling around them.

I DO remember. I was the same age as many of my current students are when this happened. It is insane to me that many of them were barely starting kindergarten and they don't remember the events that took place. They have spent the majority of their lives living in a post-9/11 world. They have spent most of their lives with their country at war overseas and at home because of what happened 10 years ago today. Our world is a different place. Thousands of people in NYC, Washington and abroad have given their lives so that the rest of us can enjoy the freedoms that we have.

I'm thankful. And I won't forget.