Where were you when the world stopped turning?

That September morning started off like any other morning I had experienced in my short, 11-year life. I woke up to get ready for school, and came out of my room to find my mom and dad staring at the TV, horror-struck. My naive mind couldn't imagine anything worse than going to advanced band practice at 7:30am until I saw images that will be engraved in my mind forever. I couldn't figure out why two normal planes, planes I had been on many times before, had hit these towers, or why the news station kept replaying the same, graphic images and saying the same, tragic phrases. And I was watching it all from the comfort and safety of my California family room.

Over the last ten years, I've learned the real meaning of words that I never used to identify with. Terrorism. Patriotism. Tragedy. Community. As each 9/11 passed, I became a little more educated and a little more aware. I've religiously read each CNN article, watched countless videos, and heard so many personal stories. Today, on the ten year anniversary of one of the biggest events of my somewhat sheltered life, I reflect on things beyond the act itself. I look at humanity in its rawest condition.

To this day, I don't understand the level of hatred that could prompt an attack of that magnitude on a country, and justify multiple suicides in the process. I probably never will understand. While I continuously feel overwhelming terror and sadness as I watched people running for their lives from giant walls of smoke, and jumping out of the top stories of the trade centers because they had to make a choice about how they want to die, I can't help but feel extreme pride and admiration for not just America, but humans as well. While I was sitting there paralyzed in fear, others were fighting. Some were dying. Many were mourning. Everyone was praying. Our freedom and strength were tested that day, with the expectation of defeat. We were not defeated. We walked away from an event that could have destroyed us with immense hope, strength, and resilience.

Alan Jackson's song "Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning" illustrates that day better than I could articulate. The last line of the chorus sings "faith, hope and love are some good things He gave us, but the greatest is love." As we enter into the second decade of remembrance, we must not hate those who hated us first. We must not live our life in fear, but rather in faith. We must not cry for the heroes lost, but rather celebrate the amazing stories and lives of so many incredible Americans who selflessly acted in a time of crisis. The light that reflects off the top of the newly constructed trade center and the bottom of the powerful memorial pools that now flow where the trade centers once stood allows us to embrace the positive, celebratory message of faith, hope and love.

I may not have witnessed it first-hand, and I may not have been able to do much to help, but I will always remember to never forget. 9/11/2001.

C.