United....

I've always been, what we'll call, an emotional person. One thing that gets me every time-without fail, is Patriotism. Whether it be everyone listening to the National Anthem with their hand over their heart before a sporting event, Servicemen marching the flag down the road at the beginning of a parade, or my cute class reciting the pledge every morning before school. They all get to me and make me choke up and get a little teary eyed.

Today is no different. It is September 11th. This is a day that we have embedded in our minds. We relive and remember the events that happened ten years ago, just like they were yesterday. We all know where we were and what we were doing. (I was in my first semester of college. My dad came and woke me up and told me to hurry and come downstairs. The first plane had already hit, and we watched the second one hit together. I watched the towers fall, I watched hours and hours of video footage and news shows. I rode a shuttle bus from the parking lot to campus, we listened to the radio, we stared at each other in silence. At school that day, it was all anyone could talk about. Students were swarmed around every TV on campus....we were in awe.)

We talked to complete strangers, at school, at work, in the grocery store line. It didn't matter who they were, we were UNITED by this tragedy that struck us. We were (are) all Americans and it affected every single one of us.

Today is also the first day of the regular season for the NFL. A lot of work has gone into pre-game tributes. Giant flags have been created and cover the entire field. Players and coaches are helping hold those flags. Fly overs from our military. National Anthems being sung. Moments of silence. Everyone in the crowd waving an American Flag. Uncontrollable cheers coming from everyone in attendance. Everyone is United again, to pay tribute, to remember those that lost on that tragic day. Millions of dollars have been spent on 9/11 commercials. (There have been some really great ones). Seeing these things, have made me tear up a lot today.

There are tributes all over Facebook. The newspapers. The internet. This is a day of remembering. We are all a little more patriotic today. Once again, a little more United.

I tried to talk to my students at school about the events of 9/11. It is hard for them to understand, to comprehend. The majority of them weren't even born. (There is one kid in my class this year, that was actually born on that day....can you imagine the emotions going through his mother's head). I've showed them pictures, talked about what I saw, tried to help paint them a picture of how tragic it was. We've had some great class discussions about it. But it isn't reality for them (I guess, kind of like Pearl Harbor is for me, an important part of history, but I don't fully comprehend it). One thing that I have focused on with my kids in these discussions, is how is brought everyone together. How the events United us. We forgot about silly things in our life, we forgave others, we realized what was important.

It's unfortunate that it took such an event to Unite us, but sometimes that is what it takes. There is a sadness on this day, but there is also something great. Every year, I feel like we, as a country, are once again UNITED. We show our Patriotism. We join together and are grateful for what we have, and remember those we lost.

UNITED WE STAND.....