Monday, September 12, 2011

Ten Years Ago...Ten Years Later...

Ten years ago today, I was a first year senior at Centenary College of Louisiana. My first class that I was supposed to go to was German Literature in Translation. I took that class because it replaced taking a language. It was a lot of reading. I wound up with a D in that class. That's irrelevant here, but it is what it is. Anyway...I didn't go to class that day.

I was in the student union building which had a big screen television in it. People didn't really have flat screens back then. The screen was flat, but the television was about a foot and a half deep. For whatever reason, The Price Is Right was always on in the student union building in the morning. No one dared change it. It was just understood that that's what was watched in the morning. I mean...who doesn't love Bob Barker. Yes...he was still on then. But even Bob took a back seat to the flaming buildings on September 11th, 2001.

When I was a junior at Centenary, a friend and I were talking about what we were going to do after we graduated. He had always planned to go to seminary. He ended up going and being very successful. I remember telling him that I didn't want to go to grad school like everyone else. I was sick of school, and I didn't want a desk job. We were sitting on the floor outside of my residence hall room and he was the first person that I ever told about joining the Navy.

When I learned about September 11th, I was hesitant about it. I had already talked for a year about joining the Navy. Should I not do it because of this? My mom already wasn't crazy about it before September 11th even happened. But...this is what we are here for. We train and train for what we hope never happens. We're much more ready today for an event like this than we were ten years ago. And despite plenty of setbacks for our country over the past ten years, we are more united because of the events of September 11th.

For another well-balanced look at the events of September 11th, 2001, take a look at my friend Chrissy's awesome blog. Things, no matter how awful, can always be viewed from a positive perspective.

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