Remembering 9/11

It's crazy to think that today is the tenth anniversary of 9/11. It's really hard to comprehend how different the world has become over the last ten years because of this singular event. I still remember where I was when I found out: I was in fourth grade, and I was getting ready for school. When I went down for breakfast, the TV was on (which it never was in the morning). My mom and I watched the news as it covered the planes crashing into the Twin Towers. I still went to school and everything, but that day there was just a really tense and sad atmosphere. I don't know if I truly understood what was happening though. I knew what I saw on TV, but it seemed like something that was so far away, nothing that could ever happen in the USA. I remember how we talked a little bit about it at school, and some kids didn't even know it had happened because they left their houses earlier that morning or something. Suddenly everything at school was so patriotic and we made countless numbers of handmade cards for wounded victims, their families, and soldiers. I feel like I don't notice the changes in American psyche as much since I was so young to begin with. I mostly just noticed the changes at the airport and how every house starting flying their American flag everyday instead of just on 4th of July and Memorial Day. I do know though that no matter what changes occur and continue to occur, I am and will always be proud to be an American. While I won't always agree with all of the decisions that leaders make, the wars that are waged, and the image that other countries have of the "American tourist," there are so many things that America represents that I have faith in. I believe in apple pie, baseball games in the summer, Texas barbeque, the stars and stripes, Lady Liberty, the "melting pot" of cultures, mini vans and soccer moms, Friday night football games, trusting in God, backyard cookouts, Jell-O, red white and blue, freedom, jazz, wide open spaces, voting, civil rights, democracy, and life. May these things always be part of the American spirit, no matter who may try to take them. United we stand.