100cities&aBABY: It can't be ten years later, when it still feels like yesterday...

There are times I feel as if my grief is unwarranted in regards to the attacks of 9/11; as no one in my family perished, & I did not have friends directly affected..yet when I read the stories, I feel as if those names, all 3,000 of them belong to me.

(This image is so surreal, as if it belonged in a movie instead of real life)
I remember that day in 2001 very vividly..I can hear the sounds, feel the pain, and relive the confusion, the anger, the sadness as if it were yesterday.. I was a junior in high school working in the office and delivering a tardy slip as I walked by a TV screen and saw the smoke coming out of the first tower, I remember thinking to myself "that sucks, hope everyone is alright" never thinking for a minute that it was anything other than an accident.
Suddenly, an announcement went over the intercom for everyone to return to their homerooms..as we entered the classroom I remember the look on my teachers face and I think I knew at that moment something was terribly wrong. We watched all day, in slow motion, knowing that our world, our lives were all different...I remember watching frantic parents storm into the school looking for their kids..the sound of cell phones going off everywhere in attempts to just hear a voice....I left school early and headed to work, at the time I was a lifeguard at the YMCA and I thought how could they be open? I remember being angry at them, but I went and sat in my chair anyways..overlooking the still waters..the entire place a ghost town, until one man came out for a swim..I will never forget his face when he emerged from the water, the tears that formed on his face..I will never forget him thanking me for being there..that he needed something normal and I gave it to him that day just sitting in my chair, doing my job..

The images of 9/11 still haunt me sometimes, and not just on this day but anytime I need a reminder as to how lucky I really am..to just be alive..to be American..I have been watching the coverage of it all weekend, the tears flowing so easily from my face..when I listen to the stories of the wives, the husbands, the children, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers etc who were lost that day and those still left behind...Seeing the images again brings back a bunch of emotions for me and I'm not really sure how to put them all into words..to be honest I am not sure the words I am writing now can even do justice to how I really feel about 9/11, about the innocent lives lost...I listen to stories of the heroes from that day and I feel honored that I live in a country where people are so willing to sacrifice themselves for others...I see the stories of hope, of those who have courageously gone on with their lives and I know that I am so blessed in my own. I will never forget the impact that day had on my life, on America and will be forever grateful to those so willing to risk their own lives to save others, my prayers will forever go out to those affected by the tragedy of this day...Remember them..the firefighters, the police officers, the soldiers, the ordinary people who gave their lives, never forget them..I know I won't! God Bless America!

This image was the very first I remember seeing back in 2001..recorded I believe as the first official death..it still makes me cry the instant I see it..Mychal Judge, chaplain of the New York City Firefighters was giving last rites to a group of firemen as he was hit by debris and instantly killed. This image is breathtaking, the intimacy of death is something I feel that my generation had never seen up close till this day. http://www2.tbo.com/news/opinion/2011/sep/11/vwopino1-the-saint-of-sept-11-touched-many-souls-i-ar-256548/

Is a great article about Mychal Judge.