Remembrance 3

They were in the tower when the first plane hit. They tried to stay inside but decided to leave when they heard the second plane hit. During the confusion she was separated from one of her friends but met up with others back at her dorm on West Street in the shadow of the Towers. Later we learned that the friend she lost was struck on the head by falling debris on the way out. People helped her up and away from the building. But we did not know it at the time. By the time she connected with her parents she the world knew the World Trade Center was no more. People did not know who was alive dead missing or buried. Her parents were worried that she was at the black boy’s house. I remember laughing at how certain people could really prioritize the important things in the face of loss.

I remember the sights and the smell a few weeks later when the police began letting residents in to gather their belongings. Seared into my memory is the trying to distinguish between the smell of air, sewage, dust, and a smell of something that I wished decomposing but knowing that it was. The police warned us that if we did find "something" do not touch it but just to notify them on the way out. His warning had stated that "some" was already found. He did not know it but it was her friend in the room next door who had already found "something" and decided to leave everything in there. I don't blame her. We only left with a hand full of things. The smell was over everything.

My friends were part of the lucky ones. No one I knew perished. But I started to forget that people, many people, I did not know did. I am trying to write down how I feel now so that I will remember the tragedy of that day. How I made myself a promise that I have forgotten. How I was going to conquer the world. This way I will remember what did happen that day and what could have happen that day. How people were still good despite the bad of that day. I will remember no matter how bad I thought that day was at least my dad was still alive and he loved me. I want to remember that no matter how bad things there was always something worse and something better. I want to remember so that I can use it as a swift kick in the pants for being so lazy. Dreams and promises are just ideal thoughts and naive ideas that never been made manifest. However, I can, despite tragedy, still strive to make them real.

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