Remember When...

When I read Andrea's post this morning, I knew I wanted to link up.

On September 11th, 2001, I was a 7th grader hanging out outside the school before the 8:00 bell rang. One of my best friends was notorious for being late to school (the bell rang at 8:00, so she usually arrived at 8:01). While we were waiting on her to walk up, I noticed she was walking a little faster than normal, so I knew something was up. When she finally reached our group, she told us that the news just said an airplane had hit one of the Twin Towers.

Since I was in 7th grade at the time, I didn't know a ton about anything, but I knew what the Twin Towers were- on our volleyball team, my always-late best friend and I were the shortest (and in class, but that's normal), and our coach frequently referred to us as the Twin Towers. After she told us about it, I assumed automatically that it was a tragic accident.

Our first hour class was Algebra/Science double period, and we always spent the first 10-15 minutes of class watching the news. That morning though? We were all silent as we spent the entire class watching the news, trying to find a way to process what exactly was happening. There were tears and silent prayers, and lots of loving on one another. I remember that at one point, our principal got on the intercom and asked that we have a moment of silence to say a few prayers for the people that were involved [I went to a public school, and I am still thankful for the fact that we were asked to pray. Praise the Lord for people that understand that sometimes you've gotta show your faith, even if it's against the "rules."].

Everyday for the next few weeks, we all spent our mornings drawing US flags on our hands with red/blue pens & white-out (we were in middle school, give us a break). It wasn't much, but we knew we needed to do something.

This summer, we took our youth group to NYC & were able to visit the memorial. To say that it was touching is not enough. It took everything I had not to just break down in tears. That day, I remember thinking that it was amazing how loud & busy the rest of the city was, but at the memorial site, everyone was calm & respectful. I am so thankful that we had the chance to visit- I think it made a difference for me to see the size & really think about the things that happened 14 years ago.

Here's to another reminder to love on your friends and family now, because you never know what's going to happen when you head to work or school or wherever. Don't let the chance to let someone know they are cared about slip past. <3