Where We've Gone

I'm not sure how long it will take before I don't shed a tear on this day. I didn't know anyone in a building or on a plane but my show of human compassion does not stop with strangers.

Besides remembering all those we lost, it's also a day of reflection for what has changed and the effects that day has had; the whole country or personally, what we can acknowledge and what have not realized. The people who I spent my time with then, I no longer see or talk to every day. The majority of people I spend my time with now, I did not know then. They were in different cities and at different points in their lives, as was I.

I wonder every year, on this day, how my life's path has changed because of the events of Sept 11, 2001. What within me changed? My perspective, my goals, my values? Does my desire to do something important and meaningful in my life come from the shock and repercussions of that day? The world is a fragile, imperfect place - what can we do to make it better?

All of those things, I think, changed but I'll never know. Because we will never know what life would have been like if it all had never happened.