9/11

14 years ago, I cannot believe that half of my life ago, our country changed. I remember that day like it was yesterday. This was the first country changing event that occurred in my life that I remember happening.

What I love about this country is our support that was created after this sad day. Many people put flags up, many continued tradition to honor the 2,977 people who were killed, and many supported those who were first responders that day and the following days as our country changed. Every year my Facebook newsfeed is covered in Never Forget, iconic pictures, and personal stories. I love seeing those. I feel like every year once a year we seem to forget many differences and come together in remembrance.

The support that I see for the first responders restores my faith in humanity. People who had little knowledge of what fire fighters actually did finally saw that they go put their lives in danger, hike up those flights of stairs, as many people are running down to try and save what they can. Who knows if the firefighters who were running into the Trade Center Buildings knew their fate, but that was their jobs and that's what they did. People saw the firefighters, police, emts, military, city workers, and voluenteeers come together and work as one unit. That's what helped start the healing process for the country while they searched and cleaned what had happened in downtown Manhattan.

Many cities have the 9/11 stair climbs. Now I have climbed stairs at the gym, that's in workout clothing and it's hard. I personally cannot imagine what it is like to go 110 flights of stairs let alone with turnouts, BAs, carrying hose, and possibly medical supplies. I have tried on turnouts and I have held all the gear and I don't think I can do that up A flight of stairs, yet every year people will do these stair climb events in what the FDNY wore 14 years ago. I have always heard that it takes a special kind of person to be a firefighter and 9/11 and these types of events shows the dedication that firefighters have with the drive they have also.

I hope that future generations will keep doing what we are doing now on this day. I want them to know the events of this day, I want them to know what an impact it made on our country, but I want them to honor the people who died that day. As I was typing this out there was a commercial that said over 13,000 babies were born on 9/11/2001 and they wanted everyone to do one good deed on 9/11 and that those good deeds can make an impact. I think that's a great thing to do each year.

-all pictures I googled images and they are not mine-