8 years ago, I was a freshman in high school and, like most of us, I distinctly remember, what I was doing, what I was wearing, who I was with, and how I felt when I heard about the planes crashing into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and in Pennsylvania. It's just kind of eerie to even think about.
It didn't hit me until I woke up on Friday morning that I'm living in the same place where these events happened. Just 8 years ago, it could have been me and so many of the people I've come to enjoy in this city. Many of the people I've met through City Year are from New York and lived first hand through the attacks and that's difficult for my brain to even fathom.
During training that day, we had a morning of reflection and observed a moment of silence to remember the attacks. Instead of having trainings during the day, we went out and did physical service to help the communities around us. My crazy team (NIGHT INTO DAY!) went to Staten Island to work in a Women's and Children's shelter. I believe the shelter is called Project Hospitality.
Me and 9 other people from the Harlem zone got a chance to go to the 9/11 Commemorative Ceremony at Beacon Theatre. It was awesome. Although it was quite jam packed with speakers, each of them had a unique message that I took away with me. The speaker that hit home the most with me was a firefighter whose son (also a firefighter) died when the North Tower fell. He also sustained many damaging effects from working at Ground Zero after the fact. At one point, he was in the hospital and doctors told his family he only had 6 days to live--and sure enough he was healthy as a horse at this ceremony! The road wasn't easy though. He had to relearn how to walk, talk, and just generally function which is quite a feat. Throughout the ceremony, the Roots, Gavin DeGraw and the lead singer from Five for Fighting shared some of their music. Gavin sang Belief (one of my favorite songs) and it was absolutely AWESOME. The Harlem Boys and Girls Choir sang too--it was cool to see a performance from people in the community I'll be working in. All in all, a very good night.
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