What 9/11 means to me now

Has it really been nine years ago since 9/11 happened? Really? It seems like it was something that just happened yesterday and something that happened about 25 years ago. I can tell you exactly where I was throughout the entire day.

My roommate and I were heading to campus at the University of Missouri for classes for the day. As he drove, we heard on the radio that a plane had flown into a World Trade Center. They thought it was a small plane and that was all that they had heard. When we got to campus, I did not have class for a few hours so I went to Ellis library. As I got there, they had a small television with about 100 students watching. We watched as the second tower got hit and knew there was a major issue. We all tried to get to the computers to find out what was going happening. Remember, this was when high speed internet was only a few years old and it could not handle all of us going to the cnn.com’s of the web. I found a way around it by going to a more familiar site, www.espn.com. They were covering what was going on as well. The rest of the day turned into a blur. I hung out in Speaker’s Circle for awhile and watched adults sobbing, praying, holding each other; but most of us were just in shock.

Everything stopped in America. No flights for a few days, no sports, no other news other than all that was going on in New York, Washington D.C. and Shanksville, PA.

About a week later, baseball returned to a game with the Atlanta Braves and the New York Mets. It was the hardest I had ever cried watching a game. The reason I cried was two-fold I think. Remembering what had just happened was the obvious reason; however, it showed that we knew that as a country, we had to go forward and show we can come back from this. What is more American than a simple baseball game.

9/11 is my generation’s Pearl Harbor or Kennedy Assassination. You will never forget where you were and how things changed. Nine years later, things sure have changed. 9/11 will always be my son’s half birthday. 6 months ago, Cameron was born at 2:15am.

The following are two songs and two videos I watched or listened to a lot after 9/11. Never forget. To those who lost those on that day as well as those who have lost loved ones while fighting for freedom.