September.11.2011- WOW, writing that date, saying that date, seeing the date will always be synonymous with complete terror I witnessed early one Tuesday morning 10 years ago. But along with that terror we saw so much heroism and courage. I don't think the country has ever been so patriotic, and even though we were scared, it felt good to be apart of all the Patriotism. But you know what else? It felt good to stand after you have fallen. In athletics you lose, you are knocked down, you fall hard. But the most important thing is getting back up. For me sports has always been mine way to feel better and I think this country used it to heal as well.
A decade ago I was a senior at Lawrence North High School. 2001 wasn't an exceptional year. Okay that's a lie. It was huge for me. I had just discovered Club Volleyball which led to me being recruited to play D1 volleyball. I chose Wisconsin remember. I also was selected to play on the US Youth National team and trained that summer. The day after I returned, I found out one of my favorite singers ever, Aaliyah, had been killed in a plane crash. Started the school year with a full back page feature in the Indy Star and was expected to do big things on the court that year. Okay, so I was having a pretty awesome year... Oh and the Yankees were in the World Series... Yeah!
September 11th was not an ordinary day to me, as I was "skipping" school as apart of Senior Skip day at LN. The rest of the school was taking I-Step and there was no reason for me to be there. I eventually had to come because you have to be in attendance to participate in sports. Come on, I lived to play sports. So not really a skip day for me. I woke up and convinced my parents to let me stay home for the first couple periods. Unable to sleep I turned on Good Morning America and shortly thereafter, the program was interrupted with news of a plane hitting one of the WTC. At the same time, my father yelled upstairs saying the same news. Not really thinking much of it, I payed more attention to the report and it was minutes later that I saw a plane hit a building. Wait? Was that a replay?
Nope, I like many other Americans that morning had witnessed the 2nd plane flown into the south tower. By this time, my father was belligerently yelling, "we are under attack, America is under attack." I can only describe the next minutes as being one of the most terrifying horrific sights I have ever seen. We heard of 2 more hijacked planes in Pennsylvania and the Pentagon and it was like OMG, my country is under attack. It was scary. And then the unspeakable happened. The south tower collapsed and I was just frozen in emotion. I held my breath in sorrow. It was just unreal. Something from a movie, not real life. It was not until years later did it become clear to me, that we had just seen the murder of innocent people.
At this point, I thought what was the point of even going to school, like ever. We are at war, right? Would there be more hijackings? What city was next? Am I safe to go outside? I was miles away from NYC, but it felt like it happened right outside my window. It was so weird, because it was a sunny nice day outside. A little breezy, but nice. I drove to school and no one was on the roads. Creepy. Lawrence North was locked down; no one in or out. I was like, "what am I supposed to do, sit outside in my car? What if I get bombed out here?" As a 17 year old, yes I was thinking all sorts of crazy things. Finally letting us into the gym, I gathered with many other seniors arriving from their Skip day. We all sat there in complete shock! The rest of the day was pointless. Its all we talked about all day. Most teachers had the TV on. Many students had missed it because they were at school and were mostly filled in by others that saw it on TV.
All of the sporting events were canceled or postponed to a later date. It was a crazy time. It was a sad time. All you saw on TV were images of a gloomy, dust filled New York City, death tolls, and video of family members in search of their loved ones. But we also saw and heard the most heroic stories ever. Stories of Firemen and policemen and first responders that were going into the towers saving people. We heard the story of United Flight 93, and wow talk about the resiliency of some people. It was just inspiring and amazing.
As things got back to normal, or as normal as can be expected, we went back to doing what we do. For me that was being a student and of course being an athlete. There is nothing like relieving stress than spiking a ball right? Our first match back was against powerhouse Cathedral, and I remember that because just as we were exiting the bus, the song Proud to Be an American came on the radio. We all stopped in our tracks, remained on the bus and sang it, like it was nothing. It was a goose bumps experience. Man! And walking into that gym, I felt obligated to play the hardest ever for some reason. I mean men can run into unstable, fiery buildings, I think we can dive on the floor for a ball. In my four years at LN, I have never been on a team that has won a set against Cathedral. Seriously. So can I gloat and say we took the first set by such a large margin, the Irish left the court and returned to the locker room in between sets. WOW!
We lost to Cathedral in 3, but know that was a great day for me. I think everything I went through that day, was the same thing this country was going through. We were trying to find a way back. And just like I was releasing through spiking those balls, the nation was releasing by cheering on our sports teams. Especially the Yankees. America's past time had been shut down for a little while, but when it came back, people found a reason to get pumped up again. You have to remember the inspired play of Mr. November himself, flipping into stands to catch foul balls. And we all were proud Yankees then. Just like the Wildcats, the Yankees were defeated by the Diamondbacks, but no one really hung their heads. It was an amazing and inspiring series. A nation that had once been hurt and traumatized had a reason so stand up and cheer again.
So here I am 10 years later, doing the same thing. Bouncing a ball onto the other side of a court. Ive had my ups and downs. Ive won and lost, but one thing remains the same... i just cannot give it up. So on this day, September 11, 2011, we play the Philippine Navy. I wont forget. Never forget. I am the sole representative from America in this entire Shakey's V league. With red, white, and blue painted on my nails, and USA written on my taped up fingers, I remember all those lost on that day. And I remember all those lost defending our country ever since, keeping me safe so that I may continue to do what I love.
God Bless the United States of America
Happy Halloween. Or All Hallows Eve is what they would say in the olden days. This is absolutely my favorite holiday. I love the decorations, I love the ghost, eery stories. I love the candy. I actually went trick or treating until I was 17 years old; which by the way was very hard because I was 6'2 since I was 14 and people had a hard time believing I was not an adult. Thank you baby face.
Previous years I have resurrected my Zombie Volleyball player and an Emo Tinkerbell.
