Ten

Ten years ago, I woke up not feeling well and decided to stay home from school.  It was my senior year of high school and I knew one day wouldn't be a big deal, so I stayed in bed and flipped on the TV.  At that point no one knew what was going on.  Both towers still stood, like giant billowing smokestacks.  Then one tower fell.  Then the other.  I distinctly remember watching live video of people 80 stories up in the towers jumping out of windows.  The world was pretty different after that.

I didn't know anyone who died on 9/11.  For that matter I don't think I know anyone who knows anyone who died, though statistics say I probably do.  But that's the thing about a tragedy like this, we stop talking about it every day.  We keep it tucked into a little corner of our minds because there is no way we could look it in the face every day.  Yet people do.  Survivors, family members, friends.  They don't have the luxury of a back corner.

We can use words like tragedy and terrorism to describe what happened ten years ago today, and those words are totally accurate.  But sometimes the only thing I end up thinking is "wow, what a shitty thing to do".  I know it's not eloquent, but that's what comes to mind.  Some times the simple words will do.  Shitty.  Fucked up.

Sometimes on this day I post a picture of a flag as a memorial.  Somehow, that doesn't seem to do it today.