Sunday, September 11, 2011

Remembering to Remember


When I woke this morning, I didn't immediately think 'oh today is the 10th anniversary of 9-11,' but I think that many, many others did and it brought about painful, hard memories. What I did do after getting an extra 1/2 hour sleep (thanks to Huntz getting up with Max) was I walked downstairs to my baby boy and Huntz playing together. The TV was on and it was then that I remembered what day it was and I was saddened that I was so selfish to think about me being able to sleep in an extra half hour and get my morning caffeine, and not remembering those that were heroes on that momentous day 10 years ago.  
I remember very vividly where I was and who told me what had happened. It was the third month of my new career as an RN and we had just started morning med pass and routines.  One of my friends, Leslie, came and told us "a plane just hit the World Trade Center."  Now I don't know about you, but I didn't have much of a reaction because it didn't seem like something tragic and terroristic when said like that.  We continued on and in another 10 minutes she came and said another plane hit the other tower. It was at that moment I realized life wouldn't be the same. The United States was under attack and things could get worse.  Every one of my patients that day had the TV on and work was unremarkable. At least I don't remember much besides standing by my patient's bed hoping to catch a glimpse of some sort of reasoning to explain this. 
The rest of the evening was me and my three roommates huddled around the TV with pizza and pop trying to make sense of it all.  We didn't talk about much else.  
This brings me to today where I started to look at Max playing so innocently and not even knowing what today represented.  Not to his fault at all, but he will never understand what life was like before we had to remove our shoes at the airport and liquids were restricted on the plane. He won't know what life was like with Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden in positions of power.  How am I to explain this to my precious innocent boy without evoking fear and distrust in other people?  Will our history books devote 1 or 2 paragraphs to explain the events that happened 10 years ago and how many people were heroes to this country and continue to be heroes serving in our military?  I may not know these answers until Max comes home from school on September 10, 2016 and asks 'why does the teacher want us to wear red, white, and blue tomorrow?' 'Why is there a flag outside our house?'  It is then Huntz and I will have to explain 'where we were' when 9-11 hit and what happened that day.  I pray that I'll have the answers to suffice his inquiring little mind.