I remember my history teacher explaining to us the magnitude of the 9/11 attacks. He said, “You will remember exactly where you were when you heard about the Twin Towers.”
I didn’t even know what the Twin Towers were, but he was right.
It was a cold morning. I dragged myself into my 7 am Spanish Class. Mi senorita walked in, part alarmed and part shocked, and told us the news. Two planes crashed into the Twin Towers. There might be a third that crashed into the Pentagon.
Part alarmed and part shocked was how most students were that day. When the photos and videos started circulating in every news station, then I understood. It was going to change our nation. Twelve years later, we remember the fallen and the heroes of that day.
Hope is defined as a feeling of expectation or desire for a specific something to happen. But it’s more than that. Hope fuels people to keep going, to persevere, to not give up. It is the light at the end of the tunnel, the answer to a puzzle, the key to a lock. Or it’s every cliche you can think of 🙂
I know what it’s like not to have hope. The bleakness, the darkness, the burden and toil it takes on you mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. For a while after 9/11, it was like that in America. And those cruel acts changed so many lives, but I hope that hope changed many lives too. Because we can rise above our trials and tragedies. We can continue to persevere. We can hope for a better tomorrow, and make tomorrow better.
Today, we remember 9/11. We remember the tragedy and the victims. We remember the heroes. We also remember hope. We kept going, persevered, and didn’t give up. May you do the same with whatever you’re going through. Keep going. Persevere. Don’t give up. There’s hope.
