Never Forgotten

Ten years ago, I woke up at 6:15 to get ready for school I turned on the radio and heard that an airplanes had hit the World Trade center. I don't think I quite understood what was going on. I stumbled into the living room and turned on the TV. Only then did I grasp what had really happened. I remember getting ready for school in front of the TV, then walking to take the bus to school.

I don't remember what we talked about during the first two hours of school. I clearly remember being in my third period Latin class and talking to my Latin teacher, wondering if the attacks were over if we were safe. I remember calling my mom later that hour and telling her to come pick me up because the school had been closed. Our high school was on the Fresno State campus and since it was a state building it was shut down. I spent the rest of the day with friends sitting at some dumpy Chinese restaurant and then heading over to a friends house. I don't think our eyes ever left the TV.

In ten years a lot has changed. I have graduated high school, gone to college and got married. I think I am finally beginning to really understand what happened that day. Even though it wasn't my Mother, or Father or friend or family that parished that day it could have been. I finally understand the angulish in the voices of the widows and parents who lost their children.

A week before September 11, 2001 I had been cast in my first show at a loca diner theather. that place would become my life and home away from home for the next 10 years. I remember the show "Sugar Babies" ended with a campy tribute to America called "you can't balme your uncle Sammy complete with our own verison of Mount Rushmore and scantly clad sailors. After curtain call before the lights rose we would start singing "God Bless America", by the end the whole audience would be standing and singing with us.

I am so proud to be an American, I will never forget the courage of those brave men and women. I will never forget the fire fighters the police and port authority workersand innocent civilans who gave their lives . Not to mention the brave men and women of the United States Miltary who gave their lives to defend our freedom. I will try every day to be as brave as they were and to be worthy of the sacrifice that they made that day. There are so many things that I have learned from these terrible attacks one of them is to really love.
To quote one of my favorite movies (yes it's rated R get over it!)

“Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around.” Love Actually