On this day, eighteen years ago, America suffered from a terrorist attack on our home soil. Al-Qaeda operatives high-jacked American passenger planes and crashed them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. It was an event unprecedented in American history. Even now, almost two decades later, we are still suffering from the aftermath. First responders, men and women who risked their lives to help, are still suffering and dying from medical conditions caused by their presence at the towers. Muslims are still persecuted and feared, despite the vast majority of them having nothing to do with the al-Qaeda attacks. The thing I remember hearing the most back then was the phrase "these kinds of things don't happen in America".
Except they did.
So today, I'm not going to talk about writing tips, working in retail, video games or movies, or anything like that. No politics, no outrage, no words of wisdom or advice. Instead I'm going to sit at home with my family, hug my kids, and quietly remember sitting on the bed in my apartment while my future husband was showering, watching on the tiny TV in our bedroom as a plane slammed into the second tower. I'm going to be grateful for my family, my friends, and what I have. We can learn from tragedy. Reflect upon what happened, what we lost, and what we gained. But there's one thing this day always makes me remember.
How easy it is to lose.