10 Years…

10 years ago I was very pregnant with my daughter and thought the world was ending…10 years later I stare at my daughter, remembering very vividly how I felt that day and wonder where those 10 years went.

10 years ago I prayed for the safety of my unborn daughter and wondered what kind of world she was going to be born into…10 years later I still worry about what kind of world she lives in, watch over her with a vigilance that only another parent would understand, and pray she will never experience a day like that in her lifetime.

10 years ago, I had to put on a brave face for my students while we listened to the jumbled news reports…10 years later, I still don’t know how I did it.

10 years ago I sat on the couch watching non-stop news footage and cried…it lasted for days….10 years later, I still cry whenever I read an article or watch any form of media clip about that day.

10 years ago I watched planes crash into the towers in disbelief…10 years later, I look up every single time a plane flies overhead.

10 years ago the New York Skyline changed forever…10 years later, I still look across the Hudson River directly at that spot and see those towers standing in my mind’s eye.

10 years ago, I heard a silence around me in the world that was actually deafening…10 years later, I can close my eyes and still hear it resonating.

10 years ago, I opened the paper and saw the last known picture of my childhood friend, Port Authority Police Officer Chris Amoroso, saving a life before losing his own in the collapse of the Second Tower…10 years later, I share that famous picture with all of my students and tell his story, as a tribute to him.

10 years ago, I cried for the emergency responders that gave their lives as heroes…10 years later, I cry for the heroes dying from 9/11 related illnesses.

10 years ago, I learned a new form of patriotism…10 years later, I am saddened by the way I had to learn it.

10 years ago I lost a piece of my heart and my life changed forever…10 years later, it hasn’t gotten any easier, because this is the one wound time just can’t heal.

I will Never Forget…