9th Anniversary

This Friday, I finished classes at noon and headed over to Metro Center, near where my uncle works.  From there, we drove out to his house in MD, picked up my aunt, my cousin, and another aunt, and we all headed up to New York for our annual long, tiring, highly-anticipated yet also much dreaded weekend.

Every year, my family attends the World Trade Center memorial ceremonies in Lower Manhattan.  It's harrowing, exhausting, and overwhelmingly depressing, but it's an obligation for us.  I don't think I could EVER miss a year of ceremonies.    

However, this year was particularly draining as 9/11 has been in the news more than in recent years.  It seemed as though people were forgetting it last year and the year before, but now all of a sudden it's at the forefront of all debates, which just made the tension higher and the emotions stronger for attendees.  Apparently there were protestors all around Ground Zero and Zuccotti Park, where the memorial has been held the past few years, but the NYPD and other staff at the event did a good job of keeping them away from where families and others attending the ceremonies would be--which is good, because if I saw any protestors near the site I probably would have clocked them.  While I'm very impassioned (I won't divulge what side I'm on, but you can probably guess considering my uber-liberal leanings...) I think that turning the anniversary of 9/11 into a day to protest and to wave signs and banners and shout snarky politically-charged sayings is REPULSIVE.  No two ways about it.

Yesterday's ceremonies also stood out for me because my cousin, Alyson, was one of the readers.  Each year family members are chosen out of a lottery to be given the chance to stand on the podium and read the names of those who died, along with the name of their own loved one.  In the past, I was a reader, and so were my mother and her two sisters.  It's such an honor to be able to read the names of those who were lost, especially when you consider that their families wait all year to hear that name called--so you have a huge responsibility to get it right.

While I don't think I have it in me to EVER spend 9/11 outside NYC, I feel a comfort knowing that throughout the year I divide my time between DC and NY, the two places that were directly attacked.  Ceremonies were also held yesterday at the Pentagon, with the President in attendance.  Vice President Biden was at the WTC, and the First Lady paid her respects in Pennsylvania.

Now I'm on the Bolt Bus heading back to DC (post on Bolt coming shortly...), after a difficult but fulfilling weekend at home.  It'll be relieving to get back to the district and back into the swing of things, but I'll also be a bit nostalgic for the feeling of camaraderie that mourning provides.  Sorry if this is too long and a downer and if y'all just feel like skimming, but these were things I just felt like getting out there, ya know?  

Be back soon, promise!

Also, emailing me has direct benefits.  Just ask Gina, our future new admissions blogger!

ShireenS@gwmail.gwu.edu

~~~Shireen