Rememberance of 9/11

September 11, 2001 is the day that America will never be able to forget. The date is already inscribed in our history books and the tragedy is already explained to those who are too young to remember. It was a day that all hearts broke, in unison. Fear and anger struck America as innocence was lost in the crashing towers and the pentagon.

I, myself, do not remember 9/11. I would have just turned eleven and I think I would have been in the sixth grade. My brother tells me that we went to a private school. I don't remember that either. I had a brain tumor and I suppose that there was a lot that I missed. Even the sound of a hundred-thousand breaking hearts did not wake me. For that, I feel guilty.

I do remember 9/11/2002. I remember the panic that I felt when I saw the planes crashing on the news. I remember crying and thinking that it was happening then. I remember the sound of the silent shatter of my heart as I watched the planes fly into the Pentagon and people falling from the towers. I remember wondering why my family wasn't hurt by it and I didn't realize that it had already happened. While all of America's shattered hearts had been mended together and a fire lit to protect what was left, I was left to mend mine, a year later, alone.

I remember the horror. I remember the heartbreak. I remember the loneliness. I remember where I was and what I was doing, a year later. I remember going to high school and the same question every year, "Where were you on 9/11/2001?".

My heart still breaks for everyone we lost in those tragedies, in the planes and in the war that began in response.