September 11, 2001: Something I Hadn't Really Thought About

When it was September 11, 2001, I was barely making sense of the world as an adult. In the years since then, there have been many events associated with the aftermath of 9/11. Sacrifice, adjustments, travel interruptions, close-calls with threats, and events that seemed to keep opening America’s wound again and again. I can only imagine the sacrifice of American families—from the heavy losses of that day to the sacrifices made by families of soldiers who have carried out the offensive and defensive missions ever since. Not to mention the loss, vulnerability, and lingering anger that we all probably feel.

I recently found out that one of my former students is a US Marine. I was proud of him before, and I’m incredibly proud of him now. He is now the age I was when he was in my class. I guess I knew this, but it hadn’t really occurred to me until now that many of the young soldiers defending our country NOW were just children when our country was attacked in 2001. Half or more of their lives have existed during these years of war. They WERE the children whose teachers, like me, had to tell them of the surprise attack that morning—and try to make sense of it so that they could grasp some sort of concept of what was happening. The young soldiers of today have gone from innocent children hearing that terrible news to courageous defenders of our country. During the years in between then and now, these children have grown up. They’ve studied, they’ve learned, they’ve trained, and they’ve become our bravest men and women.

When I told my school children about the attacks that day, I never really considered that at least one of those children would be a Marine that would continue that fight ten years later. I didn’t really know what to expect. There was so much uncertainty and fright, and I just had a sucker-punch feeling of our country being so violated. But, somewhere in that room, a young boy sat there whose destiny was directly linked with the military response to those attacks. I’m really humbled by that and humbled by his service to our country.