10 years ago

What happened 10 years ago will always be in my mind, I'll always remember how I felt that day, the fear and uncertainty that came hand in hand.  Knowing things were never going to be the same. I was in a time of transition personally - having graduated high school, and not set to start at Western for a few more weeks.  I wondered how was this going to change my still very uncertain future.  I remember wanting to drive over the high school, to get my freshman brother out of his class and hug him to make sure he was OK, even though I knew he was as OK as any of us were across the county.  And those feelings and memories are still strong.

The students in my class this year have always known a post 9/11 world.  They were alive that day, little tiny children. Most of my class this year has birthdays in 2000, with a few in late '99.  Next year there will be students who have always lived in this new world.  Their parents were probably wondering, what world will they grow up to inherit?  They've spent their whole life hearing what 9/11 was, seeing the images.  But do they understand what all of us felt that day?

Did people who lived through Pearl Harbor have this same bag of mixed emotions? I know Pearl Harbor Day is one of those days on the calendar that largely goes unnoticed by me, and yet it changed the course of so many things worldwide.   Will that be the future of 9/11?