A Day of Reflection

Today is the 11th anniversary of the September 11th attacks and it's crazy to think that it has really been that long. I'll never forget that morning and it seems like it was only yesterday. I remember sitting in a freshman college class called "Shakespeare in Love" during only the second week of classes at St. John Fisher College, in New York. There was some chatter in the hallway after the first plane went into the towers, but no one really thought much of it at that time and believed it to be a horrible accident. As my second class started, "Sex and the Body Politic", I remember kids coming in and telling us to turn on the television. And there is was...horror, panic, tragedy, and disbelief all laid out in front of us.

The rest of the day seems like a blur. Classes were cancelled and students gathered in the dining halls to watch it over and over again on television. After leaving the dining hall I remember gathering in a classmates room to watch all the news coverage. There we sat...probably six or eight of us, with other people coming in and out, and we all just cried. There was nothing else to do...we could not explain it and anger had not yet set in, so we just cried.

Looking back it is ironic that such a horrible tragedy was able to bring about such a close bond and friendship amongst strangers. None of us knew each other that well, as I said we'd only been there two weeks, but by the end of the week, we were all friends. To this day, eleven years later, I still speak with most of the people who sat in the dorm room with me as we watched the tragic events unfold.

There truly is something to be said about tragedy bringing people together. I'm not just talking about a group of college students, but a nation as a whole. We have turned this tragic day into something more important, a national day of service. There is no better way to honor those who lost their lives than by helping someone else.

*9/11/01-Never Forget*