While the world pauses to remember, where they were on September 11, 2001 and how the absolute horror stopped the world in its tracks that day, I watched this year’s 2021 multiple news stories and videos that reflected on the tragedy, the survivors (who never really survived as they once were before that fateful day), the hero saviors of the Twin Towers of New York City, and how a new generation learns it in abstract, as a chapter or two in the American History textbooks.
I re-read the blog about my trip to Shanksville, Pennsylvania when I took a solitary trip from my home in Ohio in July, 2002. It was less than one year gone by and the reality was still so raw. The rural landscape was still untouched and the tragedy of Americans who gave their lives to save others was contained within a chain link fence in the distance, with the crater refilled with dirt to level the ground where a plane thundered to earth so hard and so fast it disintegrated on impact.
That day changed my life, and I’m not only reflecting on 9/11, I am thankful and so, so humbled that I was able to pay my respects to those heros, as I stood at a makeshift memorial. The parking lot was gravel, the metal guardrails around the boundary were covered with black markers and quotes and signatures of those who came before I arrived to pay my respects.
What I left with that day in July, 2002 was a solemn vow to change my life – The passengers and flight crew had every good reason to live, to arrive at their destination a few hours later. Because they did not, because they knew they could not allow terrorists to crash another missile in Washington, DC, I could not return to my old life, my comfortable, settled ways of job, home, family, friends…
I was able a year after my trip to Shanksville, and the United Flight 93 memorial site, to leave my comfort zone in Ohio and move halfway around the world to live my dream. And twenty years after September 11, 2001-I am not the same woman who took her solitary American Pilgrimage those long years ago.
I can watch the YouTube videos of many who now travel to visit the Official Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania. I appreciate how America dedicated the land and area and built a lasting tribute to the passengers and flight crew who will forever be remembered for their bravery. It’s a place that every American should go to acknowledge what ordinary citizens of the world can do when faced with the ultimate decision. It is a solemn and humbling experience, not to be forgotten.
However, I will not make another American Pilgrimage to re-visit that Shanksville site. Why? The buildings and memorials have legitimized what happened in 2001. It’s part of our history from now on. I choose to remember the empty field and the edge of the woods and the silence that roared in the wind on top of that hill. A turn off to the right into a make shift gravel parking lot and a winding country road that curved past a country farm house and meandered out of sight.
I want to feel the raw emotions of anger, and deep sorrow that brought me to my knees weeping at the horror and cruelty of what ended nose first imbedded into the ground. I want to experience the unplanned remembrances of writing out thoughts on metal guard railings. How those few people, the others who wandered around to read the tributes, who spoke out the names of our hero casualties, who didn’t crack a smile or break the silence with idle chatter and laughter, said prayers for America and for the loved ones who could never hold them again.
September 11 will always be a solemn anniversary in the United States. With the divisions America endures on a daily basis in 2021, if you remember where you were and how the 9/11 day unfolded in your personal life back in 2001, relive your determination to stand united and proud to be an American. The entire world mourned with us and hundreds of good men and women of other nations also lost their lives to the terrorists’ plot. If that fateful day changed your life, or if you wanted to change how your life unfolded before 9/11, remember your vow to live life to the fullest.
It was a beautiful late summer morning in September. Blue skies and life was normal–until it wasn’t…
We are not guaranteed another day. After twenty years, it’s time to stop putting off what might be, or could be, or should be. Make a choice to change your life. Do it in remembrance of those brave souls who made a decision that ended their lives. Live your dreams!!!
If you are interested in reading my original blog/story about my 2002 visit to Shanksville and the United Flight 93 site, please drop over to that entry where I included many photos taken of the area before it was transformed into the “official” memorial we know and visit today. Thanks for reading my story! God bless.
onewomanamericanpilgrimage 