9/11- Let us never forget.

Can you believe it's been ten years since 9/11? I know that everyone is saying that today. It's one of those days that will always seem like it happened just yesterday. Today, my heart goes out to every family who lost someone that day. My heart aches for them and for our country.

I think it's so crazy how my students were only two when this tragedy happened, and they really have no idea what it was. I've talked to them about it, and they really have no idea. I like to share my story with them, as well as try to explain it to them, because I think this next generation needs to understand what happened to our country that day.

I was a freshmen in high school, but in my hometown ninth grade was at the junior high and not the highschool. So technically, I was a freshmen in junior high. That morning we had had an assembly in the gym, but I honestly couldn't even tell you what it was about. When the assembly was over, we were dismissed to first period and I headed to biology. I went to biology and took a test. At some point during the test, another teacher walked in and whispered something to our teacher. She nodded her head, the teacher left, and we continued with our test. After everyone turned in their test, right before we left class, the teacher looked at us and said, "I didn't tell you this earlier because you were taking a test and I wanted you to focus, but it appears that two planes have crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City." And then the bell rang, and we were dismissed into the hallway.

The hallway was crazy. Everyone was chatting, some people were crying, and I had no clue what was going on. I went to my locker to get my books for the next class, and my sister is there. She keeps saying, "Isn't this crazy? Isn't this crazy? It just hit the pentagon. Isn't this crazy?" And I just kept saying "What is going on? I don't understand? Was this on purpose?" And then we were rushed on to our next class.

I walked into home economics and the first thing I see is my teacher, sitting at her desk, crying like a baby. I looked up at the TV, and my mouth just fell open. There was smoke billowing out of the towers. I sat down at my desk, and at the moment, the south tower collapsed.

The rest of the day was spent watching the news. In history, our teacher talked to us a lot about why this was happening, why people would want to hurt America, and what we were going to do about it. You could tell everyone was scared. Where would they hit next? Would they? Were we ever going to be safe?

When my mom picked me up from school, she told us not to talk about it in the car. She didn't want to scare our little brother. Once we got home, she explained it to our brother and then pulled us in her room to talk about. We just cried and cried. That night, we went to our church. We prayed with each other, cried with each other, and cried for those lost.

I remember being so scared the days following the attacks. Any time I saw a plane landing in Birmingham, I was afraid it was going to go and hit a building downtown instead.

In the years following, I grew up in a post 9/11 world. I was so young when it happened that I barely remember life before the attacks. I barely remember a world when my country wasn't fighting this war. In the years since, I've had friends go and fight for our country because of those attacks. They went, they fought, they returned, and they've never been the same. This country has never been the same.

I'm proud to be an American. I'm proud of the people who risked their lives that day to save others. I'm proud of this country. Let us never, ever forget that day.

Go here to read a really cool article about where my God was on the 9/11/01. He is a mighty God, indeed!