Everyone who was alive and old enough when 9-11 happened remember where they were, what they were doing, and how they reacted to the tragedy. I remember I was in my seventh grade science class in Charleston, South Carolina when the principal called all the teachers on the intercom to tell them to turn on the TV. When they did, we all just stared at the TV. At first, we really didn't really know what was happening... until we saw the second plane hit. My dad was in the military at that time, and that was when I got scared.

That night, I cried for the victims and their families, hoping and praying that they would find most of the missing people alive. I would have never imagined the true devistation. I later found out that firefighters and other rescuers would not find anything whole in the rubble, including both material posessions and bodies.

I joined a fire department there in Charleston when I turned 13 in 2002 as an explorer. Every firefighter I've talked to since then always told me that they were sad that I would never know what it was like to be a firefighter before 9-11, and I have yet to truely understand what they meant by that.

I understand that there will be disasters down the road, and we will be there to carry on for our brothers that we lost. However, I may regret saying this, but I doubt that anything like that will happen to that extent for another lifetime. I just pray that no one will ever have to relive something like that in this lifetime, taking them back to the horrors of September 11, 2001.