September 11

I can’t believe that it has been almost a decade since what is arguably the most defining moment of my generation. Certainly for my parents the moment their whole generation remembers is where they were when Kennedy was shot. For my generation, I bet anyone could tell you where they were and what they were doing on September 11, 2001.

I remember very vivid details from that day but this is what it all boiled down to.

It happened the week after classes had started and I didn't know if they were cancelled or if I was allowed to skip so I went to my International Politics class. At the time I was a Political Science major intended to go to law school and be a career woman.

There were these boys in class…the type who love to hear themselves talk. They are probably seedy politicians by now. But they launched into a discussion of how the U.S. deserved to be attacked and how the Twin Towers were the symbols of greed.

This class and this day changed my life. Not because I knew anyone that was directly affected but because as these boys were having this argument, people were dying and lives were being destroyed. How could they not see that? It was there, in that class that I decided I was not that cold and callus person and that Political Science was not for me.