September 11, 2009

It's hard to believe that it's been 8 years since 9/11. I was reading this article today about how a lot of young people were remembering where they were when they heard about the attacks. I guess it's sort of our generations' 'where were you when you heard JFK was shot?'. I remember where I was, in the band hall in high school. I remember the patriotism that everyone felt at that night's football game. I remember feeling shocked and confused watching all of the images on the news.

But I think it became more real today even though it's 8 years later. It's easy to forget that you live in the city where this happened. And my school is literally a block away from the World Trade Center site, but you can still forget. I walked by the site the other day and it's amazing how little progress has been made. I don't know what the hold-up is, but it looks and feels like it happened a lot more recently. But for the most part, I don't think about being that close to the site on a daily basis. Although I remembered the other day when they were testing some kind of evacuation drill and we could hear the loud voice telling people to leave the building. It all came back to us then.

I felt like the people here were more aware of it today too. A friend here told me how she lost someone that day and I could see it still affecting her. Even the subway ride this morning seemed quieter. Or maybe I'm just reading too much into things.

I guess I don't really have a point to all this other than I think that that moment forever changed our country. And probably all of us, even if we don't know exactly how. And that I think I need to do more remembering, and less forgetting.