10 Years Since 9-11

Has it really been 10 years? Where did the time go? 

Sept 11, 2001 -- I remember waking up to the phone ringing. My best friend called to tell me about how one of the twin tours has been hit by a plane. I couldn't hardly make her words out, but I knew she wasn't making any sense. We live in Texas, and yet somehow, I could hear the fear in her voice. She's the strong one in our group, and yet she sounded utterly terrified. Her voice was trembling as she mentioned what has just happened. I ran down the stairs of my parents house and turned on the news. Together, we watched in silence. All I heard on her end were sniffles and whimpers every now and then. Together, we watched the 2nd plane hit the other tower. We gasped together in shock. 

To know people were dying right there, out of nowhere was more than I knew how to wrap my mind around. To see people jumping from 90 stories and above, because they had to choose between that or burning alive, was just too much for my 19 year old mind to comprehend. The image of people jumping still burns in my mind today, and I have chills as I type this. We continued to watch as the first tower fell, and then the second. We were horrified in knowing another plane crashed into the Pentagon, and then that another plane was in the midst of being hijacked and that it eventually crashed into a field. All we both knew to do was cry. I sat in a fetal position and felt myself shaking. I was home alone, my brother was at school and my parents were both at work. For us, it was just another day, as we were doing our normal routine. For them, it was the worst day of their life. I felt scared for my family's safety and even my own. We weren't anywhere near areas that had been hit, but were were affected. The whole world was affected. I needed to be closer to my family, and I didn't know how to even feel about this situation, other that total fear, disbelief, and extreme sadness. 

It shook my world.

As the days after passed slowly, more news came out. The plane that crashed into the field took down the terrorists. Details emerged that heroes inside the buildings were carrying handicapped and elderly people down 50 flights of stairs. As victims fought to get down the twin tour stairs, they passed fire fighters going up. Firefighters who never made it back down those stairs. Instead, they will forever be remembered as heroes. Stories about 2 men who worked in the 80 something floor came out. They saved people on their floor, and so many people in the floors above them, and yet didn't make it out alive. Instead, they stayed until the end, saving people who would have died otherwise. Spouses, children, mothers and fathers, and siblings all told stories about their loved ones calling them while on board Flight 93. How they vowed to save so many others by taking the terrorists down. Who knows how many lives were saved because of those brave people!? 

I lied awake last night, praying for all the people who's lives were changed because of 9-11, and as the saying goes, "I will never forget!" I'll never forget to keep praying for them.

 I'll never forget that there were so, so many heroes who's stories didn't make the headlines. There were so many victims who didn't live to tell about the hero that died trying to save them. 

I'll never forget to keep thanking God for our ability to come together in the midst of something to awful.

I'll never forget each and every story of those who lost a hero, so that we could gain one.