Yahoo! is asking Americans how September 11 changed them. Below is an account from a reader.
When the assignment to write about how September 11, 2001 affected me, popped up on my desk several weeks ago, I was flummoxed. I read it over. And over. And over again.
Yahoo! was asking contributors for their heartfelt accounts of how that horrific day in 2001 may have changed the course of their lives. For better? For worse? At all?
I didn’t accept the assignment those many weeks ago because I couldn’t answer the question without being honest.
I don’t know if 9/11 changed me.
But the 9/11 assignment stayed on my desk and each day I became more sure that I wanted to share my honest reflections, no matter what anyone might say in response.
I don’t know if 9/11 changed me.
I remember the horror of that day. I remember watching as first one plane and then another crashed into the towers and then crying as both towers fell. I remember watching this terror with my boss (a born and bred New Yorker) and as the day unfolded, how we could do nothing but sit in our tiny office and stare at the television screen.
10 years later, I reflect on all that has happened since that awful day. How we Americans picked up the pieces, learned how to live in a terror-filled world, and struggled to overcome our vulnerabilities.
I don’t know if 9/11 changed me.
I cannot say whether it was this one horrific event that set me on the course to where I am 10 years later. I became a mother, got divorced, met the man of my dreams, dealt with illness, lost loved ones, and woke up.
Today. Two days before the 10th anniversary of the most awful event to happen in America in my lifetime.
And I didn’t know if September 11, 2001 had changed me.
I am a better person today. I love deeper, I care more. I strive to do good in my home life and within my community. I work daily to help others live better, while continuing to do my best to live better: mind, body, and spirit.
But I still don’t know if 9/11 changed me. Might my evolution to this place, here today, simply be the path I was supposed to take?
One thing I can be sure of. Though I worried for weeks that I couldn’t accept this assignment because I was afraid of my answer; I now stand firmly by what I believe.
I don’t know if 9/11 changed me. But I will never forget any of the events that led me to where I am now. And I will always remember everyone who gave their lives and their service for our country.
I don’t know if 9/11 changed me. A proud American. A proud mother. A woman proud to voice her honesty without worry for what may come. Proud of who I’ve become.