I will never forget...

I will never forget:
My alarm going off to bizarre reports of fire being reported
Rushing to the tv to see a smoking tower in NY
Watching a plane crash into a building in front of my eyes
Seeing the impossible, two towers crumble like a deck of cards
Knowing thousands were gone in the blink of an eye
Seeing a side of the Pentagon collapse in
Looking at a fiery hole in the Earth put there not by terror, but by bravery
I still hear my Mom's voice on the phone, the fear because somewhere my father was flying that day
I know the panic of my sister coming from school to sit and wait and watch
I remember the need to connect to the people you love so deep and profound that it was the only thought you could sustain
I remember the relief of hearing my Mom say that my Dad's plane had been grounded in Atlanta
And the sadness of knowing that for many such relief would never come
I remember the shock
the disbelief
the sorrow
the sense of helplessness
the anger
the love I saw that day
and the patriotism I saw born from it
I remember that on this day a decade ago, I changed,my country changed, our world changed forever.

This week I have watched a lot of documentaries on September 11th, and while there have been so many moments that I felt touched and enlightened by these stories one statement stood out to me more than any other

One of the survivors of the attacks that day who went through what can only be described as hell to survive stated, "The world saw only the evil of the world that day, but for those of us who were inside the tower, we saw the good." I will carry those words always when I think of this day.

I know the attacks were meant to cripple our nation, send fear into our hearts, and destroy our sense of country, they did just the opposite. Those horrible actions and the sacrifice that the victims and their familes endured that day, did something those planes stated. On that day, we were American and we were United. Ten years later, I am proud of my country, and so grateful to my nation, that we rose from the ashes of that day without forgetting the thousands who didn't get that chance. So today, remember to tell the people you love what they mean to you, because when they were faced with death, that was what the victims wanted to do, so honor them, and remember that only love survives even in death.