Lest We Forget

Five years ago today, I put on a blue button-down shirt and black pants and left for the car dealership to get an oil change. Within a few hours, I was at work writing articles about the terrorist attacks on America. A few hours after that, I was on the phone trying to find information about a college friend who worked at the World Trade Center. Still in the blue shirt and black pants, I covered two vigils that night to write about them for the paper I worked for. The last thing I did before I went home that night was talk to my friend, who told me the amazing story about his day in New York City.
As I went to bed, knowing he was safe, I thought about everyone who had yet to hear from their friends and loved ones who had left for work that morning as though it was any other Tuesday. Even at the time, I knew it was going to be a day that meant something to me for the rest of my life. A few days after the attacks, I sat down and wrote out my memories of the day, recording what the events meant to me. But I didn’t have to read back over what I wrote to remember the blue shirt and black pants– that’s just one of the many details about the day that will forever be etched in my brain.
Just like the crayon-blue sky. I attended a ceremony this morning to mark the five-year anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001 and couldn’t help but notice the same brilliant blue sky that backdropped those horrible events. Such a terrible day that began so perfectly.
I will not share my views of the war that ensued or the political situations that have swirled around the events of Sept. 11. This is the time to remember those people who started the last day of their lives when they left for work five years ago today. Everyone who lost a friend, a parent, a sibling, a child or a coworker is in my heart today. God Bless America.