The Next September 11th Date - 2018

Each time I step on a plane, I push a confident feeling into my mind that we are going to takeoff and land safely. It doesn’t matter the day. The day before, the day of, today (the day after), and each other day. This is mainly because I realize the value of the lives of the people next to me on the plane and the value of my own life.

Oh, I remember the September 11th tragedy pretty well. I was young… I was sitting in a classroom and the teacher, who was normally pretty slow-footed, burst over to the roll-away television and turned it on. Without flipping a channel, there was a large cloud of smoke coming out of a tall building which I didn’t recognize. Although there was a room full of students who she no doubt knew more than about what could be occurring, she didn’t say anything at first. She just stood and watched while the rest of us sat and watched. No one knew if it were on purpose, on accident, or what. It was just apparent that it wasn’t a joke or a hoax. As people were collecting their emotions on how they felt about a World Trade Center tower being struck by a plane, a second plane flew directly into the tower next to it. At that point, people started to wonder if there were an end to the world coming.

When the dust settled, everything was on high alert and it hasn’t really changed since then. That day though, we really got to see the best of the people around us and far away within our country. People were at their most brave and their most caring, and definitely their most understanding. To me, that is something to pay attention to. That tragedy was crazy. It was unthinkable before it happened, as most tragedies are. That specific tragedy is over now, however, it will never die. It serves as a memory and a moment. One to look at and learn from. There is the simple lesson, of what to do and what not to do. The larger lesson is what we seek, although hidden behind cloud cover sometimes.

Give what we have today to be greater as a whole tomorrow. That is in our relationships, in our community, in our world, in our relationships, business, and extracurriculars. Tomorrow is not promised, and therefore, become as great as we can today.

Show the stripes USA. Show the stripes World.

Lion

Chris P Austin