eight years later

when the first plane struck the first tower, i was in my living room with my mom and sister. we were astonished and totally confused. when the second plane struck the second tower, brittany and i were standing in her living room about to leave for school. i'll never forget seeing that second plane hit and hearing the sheer terror in the voices of the newscasters as the nation simultaneously realized it was not a play-back.

our generation grew up hearing our parents recall exactly where they were when JFK was shot, or when the Vietnam War was declared a failure, or when John Lennon was assassinated. now, generation y has our own encapsulated moment in time that we'll share with our children as they read about the terrorist attacks of september 11, 2001 in their history books.

united we stood in the face of terror those eight years ago. it was the first time in my life that i remember feeling truly patriotic, proudly a citizen of the united states of america. on the first anniversary of 9/11 i printed out the lyrics to "imagine" by john lennon and hung them on the outside of my backpack:

"Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one"

it's a rainy, gray sky day here in new york city... how apropos.


we remember... how could we forget?