11 september 2001

we lived this...
we didn't learn about in history class...
even though it is now in history books...
we didn't see images and wonder what that time must have been like...
we lived this...

this day in 2001 was full of emptiness...
a day of death we lived...

every year we honor those who died...
be fallen heros, victims, families, tireless workers,
but we also remember so vividly...
the day we learned firsthand what terrorism meant...
fresh, raw, and ugliness...
honored or scared...
we will never forget.

nor will we forget what it felt like to be an american that day...
somehow the flag...
it meant much more than it ever had...
because as americans we fought together...
that day...
we lived through it.

I visited NY City 3 months later in 2001. I finished my last college final of the semester and jumped a plane that Wednesday headed for NY to spend a week with a dear friend. ...looking back...I can't believe my mom let me go and I don't remember being one bit scarred to be staying in the city. I just remember wanting to get there...to see it for myself and what had been left behind. What I imagine the terrorists didn't take in to account being left behind...was the strength of the American spirit...and I am so thankful I got to experience it firsthand in the city that year while everything was still so raw... {I scanned in a few of my pics to share...I didn't yet have a digital}

{ Saint Paul's Chapel...located across from Ground Zero }

{ the make shift memorial wall outside Saint Paul's Chapel }

{ fire fighters heading back in after a break }

{ standing guard }

{ peering in the window of a H*llmark store around the corner...still in the same state of disarray that it was left }