#NeverForget

I know many of you may think that this post is a little too late.  But I want to tell you something, it is never too late to pay your respects to those who lost their lives.

When my parents were kids, everyone knew we're they were when Kennedy was shot.  My Grandfather had stories about The War.  Now our generation too has stories about a day that changed our lives forever.  I want to tell you mine.

12 years ago, something happened that I will never forget.  On September 11th, 2001, my little brother and I were sitting on the couch watching TV.  When my family and I were talking about the day the other night, my mom said how I was having a kaniption because my brother kept switching the channels.  Which he still does today and I still go crazy when he does. 

As my brother is flipping through the channels my mom tells him to stop, but not for the reason I wanted.  The screen kept showing the same image.  It was an image of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center in New York City.

Something was happening.

My mom started crying.  I realized that something was wrong.  I said something to my mom that sounded so like me yet so not like me at the same time.  I said something about how it was because of  bad people. (I was only 2 at the time and my brother was only 15 months old.  Don't ask me how he was even able to flip the channels at that age.)

I may have only been a toddler, but I knew something was wrong.  Children know.  No matter how much their parents try to keep from them.  Some children just always seem to know.  And I was one of those children.

My mom then told us to get off the couch and come into the kitchen to make cookies. Being only 2 I thought, 'Yay! Cookies!'  But now that I'm older, I realized what my mom was doing.  She told us that the reason why she wanted to make cookies was because she was trying to distract us and distract herself.  She thought, 'I'll go into the kitchen, make a big mess, make tons of cookies. Clean up the whole kitchen and stay away from the TV.'

Now I understand.

It may have only been 11 years since the attack.  But it feels like yesterday.

So many books have been published about the attack.  Books have been inspired by stories of the attack.  People came together days after the attack, but I'm afraid of forgetting.  

People always say that they will never forget the day the world changed.  But many people already have.  I know you can't dwell in the past, but you also can't forget. Because when we forget the past as a society, we are doomed to relive the past as a society.

The world changes everyday, every week and every year.  But the feelings on September 11th will never change.

I want to show you a post Shay Mitchell put up online on September 11th.


Tell someone you love them.  I try to say I love you to my mom and dad every night.  I also say I love you to my siblings because I know that family is the only thing that lasts after life.  That and love.


I always have said: If you do not have a love of country or a love of God, then you truly have nothing.