Remembering

I was in my junior year of highshoool. I had just walked into my French class. Mr. Isom had the news on, which was unusual. I saw the first tower standing there smoking and was wondering what the heck the World Trade Center was. I stood there watching, dumbfounded, in all my 17 years of glory, as the 2nd plane hit and for the first time I understood what it meant to love your country. The rest of the day was a scary mess. Mostly because I didn't understand what was happening and why, but also because of the looks in the eyes of my teachers. I knew it was big and I knew it was going to change things. I don't how different things would be today if we had never been attacked. Maybe I wouldn't be married to a soldier, maybe he and 2 of my brothers, along with cousins and countless friends wouldn't be 8,000 miles away from home fighting a never-ending war. But I do know that we STILL live in the land of the free! They may have taken the lives of many innocent people, but they did not take away our freedom!
"terrorist" was not in my daily vocabulary back then. I had never heard of Al Queda or the Taliban.
I remember none of my teachers taught class that day. We were all glued to the news. My psychology teacher kept saying over and over, "your lives will never be the same".
Tonight I watched "9/11 As It Happened" on tv. They basically played the news casts as they aired that day 10 years ago. The initial assumptions were that it was an air traffic control issue. Now I think we would immediately assume a terrorist attack.
It's so awful to see those towers burning and people jumping from them. My understanding now is so different than it was then. And it just makes my heart ache to watch the events unfold on tv. Even though they took place so long ago. It's like I feel the things now that I didn't know I should feel back then.

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