Remembering.

10 years ago today our world changed.

I was a 19 year old student in Dimensions (chapel) at Gardner-Webb. The speaker told us that a small plane had accidentally crashed into the World Trade Center. We prayed for them and naively moved on to class. The next thing I knew I was being pushed by several other students asking questions and our professors informed us that 2 planes, 2 big planes, had purposefully crashed into the towers. We didn't know what to think. We didn't know what to say. Classes were cancelled and my roommates and I went back to our apartment. We sat together. Holding hands. Praying. Crying. Watching it unfold on live television. We didn't want to look but we couldn't turn away. We sat there wondering and questioning. What happened? Who did this? Why?

Moments later...more planes crashed. More terror. And the towers fell. It was a complete nightmare and a day that I'll never forget.

I visited Ground Zero in early November with my brother, sister-in-law and a friend. Ashe and debris still covered the streets. The city that never sleeps was quiet. Everything was still. You could sense the horror. You could smell the terror. I looked into a cafe across the street from Ground Zero. It had been abandoned. Chairs were thrown across the room. Cups and plates cracked on the ground. Glass doors broken. Everything was still. Although they were just objects I was looking at...it looked like as though they were too scared to move. Paralyzed with fear. Tears rolled down my face as I read posters from families seeking the lost. Fathers who were missing their daughter's birth. Mothers who were missing graduations. Fiances who were missing weddings.

All I could hear were sirens and police officer's voices. All that was moving were cranes and steel beams. I looked up and saw the American flag waving against the brightest, bluest sky I had ever seen.

Today, I'm remembering and reflecting. And I'm hoping our country never has to face this kind of terror again. I'm hoping that my sweet, innocent Lila Jo will never have a "where were you when this tragedy happened?" question to answer.