Everyone remembers where they were ten years ago today when they learned the news of the terrorist attacks. I was a high school sophomore sweating out biology class when another student ran in, telling us to turn on the news, and it’s fair to say I lost a lot of my innocence that day. All of us did.

Today, while driving back from vacation in Rhode Island, I passed within eyeshot of both Manhattan and Washington, D.C., and with the radio broadcasting the memorial ceremonies and replaying coverage from that awful day, it’s easy to find myself back in the terrified mindset of a previously naïve teenager. A few months after the attacks, I wrote a poem to try and capture my still-fearful feelings and memories of the day. My experience as a high school student in North Carolina who didn’t personally lose anyone and wasn’t physically close to the sites of any of the crashes doesn’t come close to the devastation felt by those who experienced or felt the effects firsthand. However, spending the day (and the weeks and months that followed) glued to the TV and worrying about the unknown is how most of America processed what happened. I doubt any of us have lived a day in the ten years since when we haven’t remembered.

The below poem was written in November 2001 and attempts to capture my thoughts following the attacks. A sculptor who received scrap metal from Ground Zero created a work of art titled “The Gates” and inscribed the last section of the poem in his piece. Although it’s clearly written by the simple hand of an unpolished student, I hope it is seen as a tribute to those who died and those who live on in their memory. Continue reading →