Remembering This Day

Everyone has their story of where they were on 9-11. I won’t bore you with mine. I will say though that working in the fire service made me pay more attention to the events and the people involved on that day. Every year when this day comes around, I take a moment to think about how I have changed in the years since.

To me, 9-11 was something that we all experienced together. By that I mean that tragedy strikes people every day, but most of us are not aware of it because it doesn’t affect us. We pass people while driving down the road or shopping in the grocery store that are experiencing pain, but we don’t know this because it doesn’t have anything to do with us. 9-11 was different. For my generation, it was the first time we had all lived through the same tragic event. We all have a story to tell of that day. I can remember my parents talking about where they were when Kennedy was shot. This was our Kennedy.

After 9-11, I started to take notice more of the “American’ in America. I’m not ashamed to admit that a child carrying an American flag brings a tear to my eye, I can’t watch a soldier’s homecoming without getting emotional, and hearing the jets fly overhead makes me stop in my tracks. I am proud to live in a country where we are free to practice our own religion, where I can work in the same job as any other person, where I don’t have to cover my face, and where everyday people put their live on the line every day for strangers.

I am proud to work with firefighters. I know that anyone of them would have done the same thing the 343 firefighters gave their life doing on 9-11. I am reminded everyday of the sacrifice that these men and women make and the sacrifice that their families make.

I hope you all take a moment to reflect on what you remember about 9-11, but also about how you have changed since that day.