Never Forget

10 years ago today I left home at 7:30 am to go to work. I was low on gas, so I stopped at the gas station a couple of blocks from my apartment on the South Hill of Spokane. There were speakers outside by the pumps, and instead of playing new music from the popular radio station, there were people talking. The first bit of radio conversation I registered was someone saying that the Pentagon had been bombed by terrorists. I was shocked and appalled that something like that could happen. And once I learned what actually happened on September 11, 2001, I wished that a bombing at the Pentagon was what really had happened, because the truth of the matter was just too horrifying.

I remember getting to work and finding every single person in the building functioning in a state of shock. I remember calling my boyfriend of the time, who lived in Seattle. I knew that he had an acupuncture appointment downtown that day, and I begged him not to go because I was afraid that the terrorist attacks weren't over and that a plane was going to crash into the Space Needle. I remember calling a ren faire friend who was a fire fighter and asking him if what had happened was going to affect him in any way, because I was afraid for him. I remember my boss being afraid for her husband (who was in the military and stationed at Fairchild Airforce base just a few miles from us) and her daughter (who went to daycare on said base). I remeber leaving work early that day for an eye doctor appointment, and watching news footage of what had happened on the tv in the waiting room. I remember being alone in my apartment that night and hearing an airplane fly overhead. I called my boyfriend afraid that something bad was happening, because I knew that all flights across the country had been grounded.

And I remember the next day at work when my boss brought me a large picture of the American flag, which had been printed in the newspaper, and telling me to make colored copies of it for anyone at the company who wanted one. I remember the feeling of patriotism and national unity that was so thick in the air that day you could have cut it with a knife. I remember the look in the eyes of every person I encountered in the first week following 9/11. It was the same look; a look of sorrow, anger and defiance. It's a look I haven't seen since (for which I am grateful) but will never, ever forget.

I remember 9/11. I will never forget it. I will never forget the sacrifices that were made on that day, and all the days following it, and I will never stop being grateful for everything I have.