9/11-A Decade Later

I have been pretty emotional and reflective today thinking back to the events of September 11th, 2001. I even requested that we sing America The Beautiful as the closing hymn at church today (I'm the ward organist) and I got a bit teary eyed while playing. Every year on 9/11 I do think of the victims and the tragedy that so drastically changed our nation but this year it hit me a lot harder-probably because of all the media attention with it being the 10 year anniversary.

Where were you on the morning of September 11th, 2001? I think it is interesting how pretty much everyone can tell you the story of when they found out about the terrorist attacks. I was a freshman at Brigham Young University. It was only my first or second week of school so I was adjusting to college life and being away from home. I was walking from my dorm to a class and my roommate was walking back to our dorm from an early morning class and she told me "Did you hear that an airplane hit the Twin Towers?" At this point I do not think the second plane had hit yet. I remembering thinking "Oh that is bad. I wonder what happen." But then as more information unfolded and my mom was calling me I realized how serious it was. The next day I attended a special memorial service at The Marriott Center.

President Monson wrote a beautiful blog entry in the Wall Street Journal of how we have changed since September 11th, 2001 and how we turned to God at that time but we need to continue to turn to Him in good times and in bad. Also many of you probably know of the memorial that they are building at the Twin Tower site to honor those who were lost. Actually it is already built- it opened today but the museum will not open for another year. It sounds awesome and I really want to visit it one day.

Today was a day to think of those who were lost, to think of those courageous heroes on Flight 93, to think of those who have sacrificed their lives since for our freedom, and to think of how much I love this country. My heart goes out to all those who were grieving today who lost loved ones on that day 10 years ago. May they find comfort and strength knowing that even those who do not know them were praying and thinking about them today. May we be united as a nation and remember how blessed we are to live in this country is what I continue to pray for.