I wanted to write a short post about the 10th Anniversary of the September 11th attacks mostly because I am having a bit of trouble sleeping and I thought this could help. I think this is partially the reason I’m actually having trouble going to bed.

10 years ago I was in 7th grade Spanish class when our assistant principal explained to us that an airplane had hit one of the Twin Towers. My first thought was “How did a pilot manage to make such a big mistake?” Soon after we found out that both of the Towers had been hit, and we were able to tell that this had been a planned attack.

After that I don’t really remember much of the school day. I know we talked about the attacks in Science class. Luckily my classmates and I all lived far enough North from the city that none of our immediate family members had been effected. I remember I got home from school that day and watched TV for a few minutes. It started to upset me. The images of the Towers falling give me this huge depressing weight in my stomach every time I see them. Those were the only images you could see on the television for days and days.

I mostly think of September 11th as a terribly horrific and tragic day in our nations history. I certainly will never forget that day and I greatly admire the absolutely insane amount of courage firefighters and other first responders showed on that day. But there is something about that day that makes me feel so sad that I almost feel sick, still.

I am proud to be an American, I am proud to be from New York (even if its not the city!) I love my life and my family and I appreciate everything I have and this beautiful world that we live in. Even though there are great evils out there, I know that there is much more love, compassion and sacrifice. My mom always says that “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.” I think the same goes for evil and destruction… its gets more attention. But there were thousands of people that came to help in the aftermath of 9/11 as well as many other crises we have faced since then. I see people in my life working hard to do great things to help people and our planet on a day to day basis.

9/11 is a great example of a tragedy that we were able to overcome because of love, compassion and self-sacrifice. There are many other things out there that we can also overcome together with the same ingredients. Always remember this day, not only as a tragedy, but an example of a challenge that we were able to overcome together.