September 11

13 Years ago, today, the world was shaken by a horrible attack on innocent people. Too many lives were lost and others were ripped apart because they were torn apart by losing their mother, father, sister, brother or other relative.

When thinking back of events in the past, us humans like to compare notes. Often I hear the question "Where were you when it happened?" Sometimes I can't answer at all. It simply has merged with the rest of my life and I cannot remember what I was doing.
This is not the same for this date. After all, I was 11.
It was a school day. I had just returned home and had turned on the television. My mother has this habit of turning the tv off while on the channel 4. This was also the case that day. As soon as I turned on the television, news was broadcasting. I normally didn't care much for the news yet, but this shocked me. Cause no, my eyes weren't deceiving me. I did just see footage of a plane crashing into a very large building.

Normally I start flipping channels until I would reach a child's channel or something with cartoons. This day I didn't. Hours later when my mom returned home from work, I was still watching the events happening in the city of New York. At the time I wasn't even too much aware of the US. All I knew about it was what I had seen in series and movies. But that day I became aware of a world far beyond mine that was now grieving and dealing with a loss.

During the night more news came. More planes were hijacked (a word i didn't know before that day) and we even heard that there may have been a dutch woman or man who had died in the twin towers. We saw the buildings coming down. I saw the second plane hit the second tower. I was shocked. I wasn't aware that people were capable of doing this to other people. After all, I never really showed any interest in news at the time.

We're 13 years later, 13 years in which a lot has changed. The man who is said to be the leader and maybe the mastermind of the attack has been killed. There has been a third world war, though nobody seems to classify it as such and millions and millions of people have been affected by this. In one way or another.

I just wanted to take some time to think of not only the people who were lost during the attacks, but also all of the people who have been affected in any way by what happened 13 years ago. In the past few months I met someone who had his brother in the middle east, as a result of these attacks. Luckily this brother came home unharmed, but I can't begin to imagine how something like that could affect my life. The constant fear of losing that person.

My thoughts go out to all of those who lost their lives during the attack, and during the war that followed. You never asked for this, it was thrown upon you. I wish strength to those who have to live on without their loved one. Remember them as they were, loving and kind hearted.

x - Chantal