I know I still have alot more to catch up on, but today is a really important day in not only the history of this great country, but in my own life. I cannot believe it has been 10 years since that day I woke up and was getting ready to go to my second or third week of 10th grade and I turned on the news in my room as I always did and saw a report of a plane hitting into the World Trade Center. I didn't really get the full realization of how BIG this really was and how HORRIBLE this event would truly turn out to be. I was in a hurry to leave so I didn't get to watch much of the report and the story soon left my mind in the early morning rush. We went to pick up my cousin Julie and my friend Amanda for the daily carpool. When we were arriving at school, our morning music went to commercial and announced that a second plane had hit the second building of the World Trade Center. Nobody else in the car had heard the report of the first event so they were pretty shocked. Because I really didn't seem to take in how extreme this actually was because it had just seemed like some crazy event, I just thought "oh yeah you didn't hear about that?" My mom was pretty shocked by it and I just kind of played it down, being my self consumed 15 year old self. We went inside and it left all three of our minds almost immediately and we just sort of went on with our day. As we went to our first period (mine being Student Government) we heard the principal come on the intercom and announce the events of the morning and we were asked to join in the nation for a moment of silence for the people who were suffering back east. While we took that minute of silence I remember saying a prayer and asking to help those in need and to help me to be able to remember the events of this day because I knew that one day my children would ask "where were you on 9/11?" I remember the morning clearly up until the principal finished up the moment of silence, the rest of the day is pretty blurry in my memory, but I remember that morning as vividly as if it had happened yesterday! (Probably more than I remember yesterday morning actually lol). It was an amazing experience being able to sit in silence with my fellow students and know that they, too, were all likely praying or at least feeling some spiritual feelings. It's probably how people used to feel back in the day when prayer was allowed at school. It's a shame that that right has been taken away from us. It was an amazing experience and I will never forget it.
I had the opportunity to show Aden some of the footage and interviews (we watched some of Dateline on Friday which was dedicated to 9/11) and share my memory of that day and let him know how much I truly love this country. He had some questions and one that he asked was so cute was "do they know where Roy is?" At first I didn't really understand what he asked but I realized he was thinking that maybe they were going to come fly planes into our buildings. I explained to him that there are bad, sick people everywhere and that is why we must always be careful, but that we always have our family and friends around to be there and help us; but, most of all, we have God there to watch over and guide us. He seemed to understand this and went on to watch his TV show upstairs. It was a great experience to be able to share some of my memories and feelings about that day and I hope to be able to do that more and more in the future as he is able to understand more and more.
It was a very memorable day for me today. This morning I woke up and realized that I hadn't picked out any songs for Relief Society and all of the sudden I got this great idea (or prompting, Im not sure which) to pick some patriotic songs and then it came to me that it was such a special occassion that I needed to pull out my violin and play something to bring the spirit there. I was really scared to think about playing, especially a song I was just going to pick out and practice for about ten minutes! I decided on I Stand All Amazed (mainly because I wanted to have a religious song too) and The Star Spangled Banner. So I went to church with my violin in hand and decided that I would play the song one time through with just the violin and then we would sing it together. I played the song okay I guess, not up to my own standards especially because I was shaky and it made me sound kind of scratchy; but the ladies in the room said I did a great job. They SAID it brought a good spirit into the room, but I didn't feel it that's for sure! I was too shaky! LOL... but I did it and it worked out great. It turned out that I Stand All Amazed was the perfect song for the lesson, too (which was about temple work and eternal bonds etc). I'm glad that I did it at least for myself because it made me feel as if I did some small part to help brighten the day and make the day a little bit more special to everyone.
Anyway... it was a great day listening to peaceful songs and looking at pictures of 9/11 and what not. Hopefully we can continue the tradition of teaching our children of the important events that happened that day and let them see how truly lucky we are to have the country that we do.
God Bless America and Never Forget!
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