remembering...

the Brooklyn Bridge

every year i sit down to write my post about september 11, and every year i feel the same as i did the year before. i visited the 9/11 memorial last time i was in NYC. it was amazing and surprisingly peaceful. it is the perfect sanctuary right in the middle of the city. rather than try to say the same thing i feel every year in different words, i'm reposting what i said on the 10 year anniversary.

September 11 is a date that hopefully no one will forget. I don't even know how to put into words what I feel today. I have been reading Facebook status updates and blog posts and watching TV specials today. I am overcome as I think of that day 10 years ago. My experience definitely is so small in comparison to many others who lived through it/barely survived, but it is still something I never want to forget. I was a senior in college, and I was finishing getting ready in the morning. My friend Elizabeth came over to walk to school, and she heard something on the news but didn't know much. BYU was a very different campus that day. Many classes were cancelled that day. There was a special prayer meeting held in the Marriott Center. Click here to read. Even though there was an obvious mood of fear overtaking the country, I remember the prayer meeting and how meaningful it was for me that day. As I think back to 10 years ago, I not only remember the horror of our country being ripped apart by terrorists, but I remember our country coming together united in this tragedy. President Monson writes in the Washington Post about the opportunity it gave many to spiritually rebuld. As I look at our country 10 years later, the tragedy to me is that we aren't always united. We aren't always spiritually strong. We aren't always looking out for each other. We don't always remember. Today was a good reminder to me to always remember.

originally posted 9/11/11