9/11- Remembering

I can clearly see the blue pattern on my sheets and feel the sun filtering in through the windows, in that exact moment after my radio alarm went off.  I had planned to get up and go to the gym before my classes started later in the morning.  But my bed was so comfortable and the will to work out was weak that morning.  I hit the snooze button before the words of the usually blithe and sarcastic radio DJ had really sunk in.  Something about a plane and a fire.  I distinctly remember thinking that it was one of their normal jokes.  I slept for seven more minutes and when the radio clicked on again, they were still talking about the plane.  I started to listen, sitting up on the edge of my single dorm room bed not yet knowing that this was a moment, a day, that I would never forget.  I was 20 years old. 

            Several other moments from that day remain remarkable clear to me.  My roommate yelling from her room that “They just hit the Pentagon!”  The horror beyond anything I had ever known as the first tower collapsed, as if my stomach fell with it.  A student whom I didn’t know, standing next to me in a crowd around a TV in a classroom later that morning, turning to me with vacant eyes and saying “I know someone that works there. He won’t answer his phone,” before he walked slowly away. 

            I assume most people have similar memories of that day, just as my parents and grandparents will never forget where they were the day Kennedy was shot or when Armstrong landed on the moon.  In fact, my own kids will most likely refer to 9/11 in the same way some day- mentioning how their their parents were moved by events that they read about but can never truly understand the experience of living through.  It’s hard to believe 11 years have passed and the memories are still so clear.  I hope they will always remain that way, because I think we all can agree that remembering such a day is important.  Remembering not only pays tribute to those who were lost but also keeps in the forefront of our minds the greater lessons from 9/11- knowing what is important, what is valuable and what is worth fighting for.