This year, as well as in previous years, the UCF College Republicans and College Democrats have teamed up to display a memorial for the almost 3,000 people we all lost on 9/11.

Some of us were still in elementary school, beginning middle school, or junior high when the unthinkable happened. I vividly remember the day like it was yesterday. I was in my second period class in the band room for drumline practice. Our band director walked out of his office and turned on the TV. It was less than a minute before the second plane had crashed into the South Tower of The World Trade Center. At first, I thought it was a movie or some documentary. When I realized it wasn’t fake, I remembered the chills that went through my body as the room seemed to darken for a moment. I was in shock and at such a young age I realized that our world would never be the same.

It has now been thirteen years since this attack on America. On the day of the attack, I saw teachers crying or worried about what had happened. Some of my classmates were pulled out of the classrooms. I wondered at times why I felt the way I do about 9/11. I didn’t have any family members that died in the attacks or lived close by. Even though we weren’t the ones that died, or lost a loved one, the reality reverberated through all of us. During times like this, America seems to be at its strongest point when we stand united and support each other through our suffering.

The terrorists that day wanted to take away our comfort and pride. Indeed this event shook our compliancy and safety, but it also bolstered up our patriotism, love of our country, endurance, and sympathy and support for our fellow Americans. For a day they had hope to bring us terror, we became resilient and steadfast. Quite the opposite of what they may have hoped. However, I wonder how long this level of patriotism will and pride will last for future generations.

Just three years earlier in 2011, it was the 70th Anniversary of another horrific event that shook our reality. On the morning of December 7, 1941 America was attacked by a surprise military attack at one of our US Naval Bases in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. We were not born or even a thought when this happened. Some of us may have grandparents that are still around that were in WWII or at Pearl Harbor when the attacked happened; but to us, it may seem to be something we learn in our history books. So, what will happen to the history of 9/11? 

I really don’t know how America will remember 9/11 five, ten, twenty, or even fifty years from now; but regardless of these horrific events, we should never lose our faith, pride, and love of our fellow Americans, because it should not have to take another Pearl Harbor, 9/11, or any national tragedy for us to be patriotic or come together as one nation.