It was the eve before I turned 20. My mother in law woke me up (I was living with them while I attended college). She said I think that we are about to watch history unfold before our eyes. I remember being glued to the TV for the remainder of the day and crying with others at the loss of our nation feeling secure. So many people were forever changed that day.
As I write this post tonight it seems a little surreal that I would not be teaching in two weeks if 9/11 did not happen. My entire course focuses on homeland security and has several weeks of intense over view of the results of 9/11. I watched a tv program the other night of a high school on the east coast that gives their students the opportunity to learn this as their focus area in high school. In my teens we as a nation didn't worry about terrorist threats or our security, now kids grow up knowing about the attack of our nation.
In a personal sense this day was a foreshadowing of the decade of my twenties. I turned 20 the day after and I remember a lady asking me if I even felt like celebrating when the world was ending. I am faced with this same challenge tomorrow, is the day I turn 30 worth celebrating while my baby sister sits on the oncology floor of the Kohler Pavilion at OHSU? If I have learned anything in the last 10 years it is that to live each day as if it were your last. Along with the many trials that our family has faced the past ten years, we have been completely blessed.
I don't think that a single victim of the terrorist attacks knew that it would be their last day when they left that day. As I have spent time talking to my sister she states that she never wants to waste a single day of her life. We have so few to begin with that we should value each and every one of them. God has blessed us so tremendously with the results of Ashley's surgery and I believe without a doubt that we will continue to see answers to prayers. To start this next decade of my life I am going to set some life goals:
1. Love God more and be more purposeful in my relationship with him
2. Make sure that those in my life never doubt my love for them
3. Live each day to it's fullest
4. Be healthier
5. Be the friend that I want to have
6. Hug more, laugh more, and stress less
7. Final goal...get my Phd before I turn 40
I believe when you let the your goals remain out there it makes you work harder to achieve them.
