I remember

Photo by Rebekah Bavry, September 22, 2017, NYC

September 11. 9/11. A day that changed many lives. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it would change mine…forever. As I hear and see the memorial ceremonies and remembrance ceremonies flashed across everything, news, social media, etc., I can’t help but reflect on what this day means to me and how it impacted my life.

I still remember that morning. I was blow drying my hair in my room at the Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority house when I turned on the morning news. It was a ritual that I did every morning: get up, turn on the news, get ready for classes. As the headlines came across breaking news, that a plane had hit the World Trade Center in NYC, I remember thinking, “Lord, some idiot pilot lost control of a plane.” I then turned off the news, not wanting to hear all the crap that I knew was going to come from an accident like that. It wasn’t until I entered into Smith Music Hall at Marshall University that I found out what really had happened. Derek Gwinn came around the corner and told me that the country was under terror attack. I stepped into the doorway of a general music class and watched as the towers fell. It was later that our school found out that one of our professors at Marshall was on one of those planes. Dr. Ambrose. Never did I think it would strike us so close to home. I remember friends calling loved ones in the NYC and DC areas checking to see if their families were ok. I remember the terror in everyone’s eyes. I remember the “rally to the flag” as we came together as Americans to help our fellow citizens. 

Today, I still see and remember. I see the fear in fellow soldiers’ wives as we send off our soldiers to face harm. I see the children crying as they have to let go of daddy to a deployment to a foreign land. I’ve gotten those phone calls from young wives facing their first deployment and are terrified and overwhelmed. 9/11 changed my life. It changed all our lives.

I didn’t know my husband 17 years ago. I didn’t meet him until 2004. We found out November 2004 that his unit was deploying to war. We eloped in early 2005 and he shipped off to the Middle East a few months later. We’ve now been through 5 deployments in 14 years. He’s spent half of our marriage either training away or deployed. And now that our country has been in these wars for 17 years, remember that there are soldiers who can’t even remember 9/11/01. Those born that year are 17. We have soldiers who are still reaping the effects of the attacks all those years ago. We have soldiers/troops in harms way today as our country continues to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan, who only know about 9/11 second hand. It still continues to effect us today. 

We have no doubt that we will have more deployments for our family. I have no doubts that Afghanistan could be a part of our future. But today, we remember. We remember the fallen, the sacrifice, the bravery, the fear, the hope, the love, the patriotism. We must remember. And we must pass it on. Talk to your kids about what happened. Show pictures, videos, everything. Let them know that they are a generation that was born after a tragedy that shook our world, and they must never forget. 

9/11 changed my life in a very tangible and personal way. My whole family is built around it in a way. I cannot and will not forget because I LIVE it every day.