In September of 2001 I was a 20 year old student attending San Francisco State University. The fall semester had just begun and I was now sharing an on campus apartment with 3 other girls, one of which would become my best friend. On the night of September 10^th, I was working feverishly to complete a 20 page lab report. My biology class was already a challenge and it was already taking a lot of my time. I stayed up until nearly four o’clock in the morning trying to finish that lab report and make it perfect. That was the biggest worry I had in my life, at that point.

In the early hours of the morning of September 11^th, my roommate Tommie came flying into our room. I was in a deep sleep when she came in. All I heard her say was “Get up, you have to see this.” I thought that someone had broken into our apartment or something was going on in the courtyard below our apartment. I then heard Tommie’s voice from the living room, “Our country is under attack” At this point I was wishing that our apartment had been broken into.

When I made it out to the living room, what I saw unfolding on our television was surreal. Here I saw the North tower of the World Trade Center on fire, smoke billowing from gaping holes in one of its sides. Then a saw the replay of what had happened. All of us were speechless. From that point on the morning moved in slow motion. We sat there wondering what could have happened and why. Was it an accident or did this happen for a reason? Unfortunately our questions were answered. As we sat there watching live footage, a second airplane came into view and we watched in horror as it slammed into the South Tower.

I remember thinking that this had to be it, who ever planned this had to be finished. We watched in terror as the twin towers of the World Trade Center burned. We watched as survivors at and above the impact zones became desperate to get out of the building that was burning. We watched as people began to jump from windows more then 90 floors up. We watched as the South Tower collapsed, followed by the North Tower only thirty or so minutes later. We sat there hoping that these horrors would end, but it wasn’t over yet. Reports were coming in that another plane had hit the Pentagon, the symbol of our safety and protection. Then reports came in of a plane meant for Washington D.C. crashing in a field in Pennsylvania. It felt like it was never going to stop.

By 9am the carnage of the day had completely unfolded. We sat glued to our TV in the living room. For days our TV remained fixed on the news and footage. We prayed and hoped that people would find their loved ones, that a miracle would occur and the loss of life would ne minimal.

However, in all of the grief, anguish and disbelief something beautiful happened. People came together. It did not matter if you were black, white, Hispanic or any other ethnicity or race. It did not matter if you were Catholic, Jewish, Mormon, or Buddhist. It did not matter if you were Democrat, Republican or could care less about politics. People came together to help one another out, whether it was to help pull people from the rubble and allowing people into their homes who needed a place to stay while they looked for loved ones to donating blood or volunteering with Red Cross. People put their differences aside and banned together to show those who tried to hurt us that even in the darkest of times we will continue on and we will not turn on one another. In such ugliness there was beauty.

Ten years later I am now married to a man I love with all of my heart and soul. We have two beautiful girls, who I would do anything for. My life has changed a lot since then and all for the better. I now look back at September 11^th, 2001 through the eyes of a mother and a wife, as someone who spends every day doing things for someone other then herself. My world involves more then just me, my friends, college and finding a part time job. I look at all of the children who lost mothers and fathers that day as well as the parents who lost sons and daughters and it makes my heart ache in a way that I couldn’t have understood ten years ago.

Today my thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends who lost those closest to them on such a dark day in our short history. The nearly three thousand souls that were lost that day cannot be replaced but they will never be forgotten. I hope to one day take our children to New York City and show them the World Trade Center Memorial. I want them to see what once stood there and understand what happened that day, but to also see the resolve and the perseverance of the American people. As long as we never forget but we keep on moving, those who try to hurt this great nation will never win.