Sunday, September 11, 2011

Always Remember, Lest We Forget

It's ironic, for a 20 year-old female, I thought September 10, 2001 was one of the worst nights of my life. I spent that evening on the phone with my, at the time, on-again-off-again boyfriend, learning about his time during the off-again. It was devastating, but it was a conversation we needed to have. Especially since I was set to move to England on September 15th. We talked on the phone until after 2AM. Since I was getting ready to study abroad, I had spent the summer at my parent's house in New Mexico. The morning of September 11th, my mom came in, said something to me, and turned on the TV. It was only 7AM, and I had gone to bed only about 5 hours earlier. I shut the TV off, and buried my head under the covers. A few minutes later, mom came back in, turned the TV back on, and said the words I will never forget: "NO AMERICAN SHOULD SLEEP THROUGH THIS!"

That made no sense to me in my groggy state, but I sat up and looked at the TV, just in time to see the footage of the second plane fly into the World Trade Center. You want to talk about a wake up call. The next few hours were a blur of phone calls to Monique, who was also headed to England, just a few weeks later than me, and the travel agency that booked my tickets. We had no idea when the airports would reopen, but I was certain I would not be flying to London that Saturday.

My flight did actually take off on Saturday, however, I was not on it. I rescheduled my flight for the following Tuesday, one week after this horrifying event. It's weird for me to look back at these events, because I wasn't here, but for a week. I moved to England, and put studying (well, if I'm completely honest, traveling) at the top of my list, and I really did not look back. Ten years later, I remember that instant vividly, and I will never forget.

God bless America, the troops who give me the right to say that, and all the families who will never be the same again.