September 11. Last year, I didn't seem to notice it, but this year I'm going out of my way to immerse myself in it. Yesterday I realized that I had never seen the Pentagon Memorial, so I gathered my sketchbook, my camera, and my bike and just rode.
It's one of those days that always evokes a feeling. For the most part, everyone is somber and respectful because it is a day that is rooted deep in the hearts of all Americans. For me, and probably for countless others, that clear September morning was when my world crashed.
Terrorist Attack.
World Trade Center.
Pentagon.
These words meant nothing to me.
I still remember, exactly where I was sitting in the classroom, by whom I was sitting next to, what math problem I was doing when my teacher familiarized these words into my future daily vocabulary.
Walking into the memorial, it is set up like a huge timeline. Starting with 1930, it progressively gets closer to September 11, 2001. On the timeline each person is memorialized with a bench located somewhere on the timeline depending on their year of birth. All are engraved with the name of the victim and depending on which way it is facing, it represents whether the victim was killed in the plane or in the building. As I reached 1977, it stops. For twenty or thirty feet there is nothing, just gravel. Then, while narrowing, there are five or so benches that all face away from the building and towards the sky.
Then it became real for me. Three out of the remaining, were born in 1990. Bernard Brown, Asia Cottom, and Rodney Dickens were all my age. All three most likely left that morning just as I did, living obliviously to the hate that was about to invade our little tiny worlds.
They weren't given another chance. A friend once said, "Use the love you've been given to empower those around you." Just those three lives alone were lived too shortly. Out of the 184 people that died at the Pentagon that day, how many walked out the door without saying I love you to their spouse? How many got on American Flight 77 and waited to text their loved ones good morning because they didn't want to wake them, but had no idea that they would have another chance? It's unfathomable how many people you are loved by. Don't wait to say something because you are afraid, because like Bernard, Asia, Rodney, and the thousands of other victims that day, you may never have the chance.
I'll start. I love you.
