September 11, 2001 was a day that started off as any other Tuesday, and ended as a day that would remain in history forever. I can still remember sitting in my car in the university parking lot when the radio music cut off and the disc jockey made the announcement that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. Somehow, in that one moment, my instincts told me that life was about to change for all of us, and it truly did. In a blur of a day, classes were canceled and people rushed home from work to hug their families and we all did the same thing. We all turned on the television and watched with helplessness and fear at the scenes projected into our living rooms.
It didn’t take long b
...efore we knew that this horrible event had not been just an accident, but the way we collectively channeled our anger and responded in the aftermath, showed the ultimate goodness of the human spirit. It truly proved what it meant to be an American. To the generations born after the events of 9/11, the day will live only as lessons in History books and discussions in classes. It will seem almost as something distant–something from the past–something almost unreal. However, to those of us who lived through that day, all it takes is a brief moment to retrieve the memory embedded deep within our souls. We were all united somehow, by those few minutes when the world changed.
In the immediate days afterward, we didn’t know if we’d ever be able to laugh, or dance, o
even share joy again, but we knew that we never wanted to forget the goodness of humanity that we saw in the face of true tragedy–and for most of us we didn’t. Â
