September 11 - 14 years later.

When I sat down to write this post I didn't know where to start. How did I want this post to be read. I'm still not really sure, so I'm just gonna write, so please excuse me if this feels over over the place, but when I think about September 11th, I feel all over the place.

I was so overcome with emotion when I thought about what writing a "September 11th" post meant to me. I starting thinking about how September 11th makes me feel, where I was back then, what was I doing and then it hit me, it has been 14 years since 9/11/01. Does anyone else feel like there is no way it can be that long ago?

Time is passing. Yet, for the United States of America, there will be no forgetting September the 11th. We will remember every rescuer who died in honor. We will remember every family that lives in grief. We will remember the fire and ash, the last phone calls, the funerals of the children. - President George W. Bush  

I've done a lot of 9/11 posts all in remembrance, but how do we remember without the facts of what happened? Here's a little history reminder and lesson.

Fourteen years ago, on the early morning of September 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four passenger airliners and redirected the course of history. Two of those places, American Airlines flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, were flown into the north and south towers of the World Trade Center complex in New York City. 37 minutes later, American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. At 10:07 a.m., United Flight 93 went down in a field in Pennsylvania. These attacks killed nearly 3,000 people. 

For me, while it does seem far away, September 11, 2001 will always feel like it was just yesterday. I do remember where I was, what I was doing and how I felt. I remember the words George W. Bush said, the songs that were sung, the moments of silence, the prayers prayed and the half-mast flags. I remember how I cried and how I mourned for people I'd never met. I remember coming home from school, laying in bed watching the TV and crying. I was only 14.

As I sit here and think about 9/11, my heart feels like it weighs 1000 pounds. Tears are sitting in my eyes and my throat feels thick as I remember that day. I feel sad. But the thing that give me hope and the thing I write about every year is the hope I have.

America has been through it, as have her people. Americans fight with Americans, Americans kill other Americans. But on that day and every September 11 since 2001, Americans have come together. We forgot the bullshit (excuse my language) and we remember the common ground we all share. We love this country and we will fight for the freedom it allows each and every one of us. I promise to never forget the sacrifice and the lives given that day to protect others. I promise to always remember September 11, 2001.