In 2001 when September 11 attacks happened, I was in Minneapolis going to school, and the semester had just begun. That morning, a call from my friend woke me up telling me something terrible happened and told me to turn on the TV. TV news was reporting the attack to one of the twin towers with smoke rising from the middle of the tower. Moments later, I saw the second airplane diving into the second tower. Watching it live on TV, at first, I wasn't really sure what I just saw was the replay of the attack which was just told by the reporter or another attack just happened in front of millions of people's eyes.Then buildings collapsed. It was hard to believe what I just saw happened and the magnitude of the incident, because it was surreal to witness something like that. The school was closed that day.
10 years later, I came to work in the morning as normal day on March 11 2011, and my coworkers were telling me about the news of the earthquake in Japan asking about my friends and families. Usually news about earthquakes didn't surprise me, because it was normal in Japan, and I thought my coworker who wasn't really familiar with earthquake being worried too much. I went online and saw the videos of tsunami wiping out the towns like they are miniature models. At first, I couldn't comprehend what I just saw. It was too surreal to believe it was real at first. I couldn't really believe what just happened, just as I couldn't believe the attack ten years ago. Until I hear the news talking about the possible numbers of death tolls and the tsunami damages to the nuclear reactors, I did not doubt it was going to be just fine as usual. But it was like worst case scenario written by a science fiction writer, the news seems to became worth as days goes by. I kept the news streaming on my desktop at work and at home hoping to hear some miracle that somehow avoid what we thought would be worst case. It was cruel to watch the incidents from outside and I wish I was in Japan at the time going through this with others. But I decided to believe that to do the best on whatever I was doing here somehow went around the glove back to my home country there.
I went to New York City last weekend and I had a chance to look over the ground zero memorial site of September 11 attack, which supposed to have grand opening today. In the early morning, I came back to the hotel from a walk and went to the 20th floor terrace of the hotel which was located right next to the site, and I was seeing two large square depressions which are going to be waterfall features where two towers used to stand.
These holes are exactly where the two towers used to stand and collapsed taking 3,000 lives 10 years ago. There are countless stories around the world about this incident and the memorial is to remember what had happened to the country and what it means to all generations around the world. Watching this memorial site, I couldn't stop thinking about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. It significantly changed everyone's perspective about our lives and nature, and we needed to change how we lived in the new world we entered. It must be remembered as long as the future exists. How we remember the lost lives and the countless stories about the people who fought and helped and what we can get out of this painful lessons is key to our future prosperity.
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