A day to remember that affected the whole world

Every so often there are days that affect not only you but a good part of the world, too, each person in a different way.

Since the birth of mass media, it has become possible to share the experience together, have your hearts racing together and also try to understand what happened together. Events like the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the shooting of President John F. Kennedy and the explosion of the Challenger Space Shuttle all were seen through coverage on the television. These events made you stop what you were doing at that time so you could comprehend what you were watching.

Then an event happened that just didn't change your day or even your year, but your entire life while at the same time changing millions of other people's lives. It was one Tuesday morning in 2001 where no matter what you were doing is now engraved in your memory forever. Never before had any of us ever witnessed a live event on the news such as passenger planes being used as weapons.

That morning millions of people shared the same fear you felt of not knowing what was happening and not knowing what was going to happen next. That morning everyone's lives stood still all at once and unfortunately nearly 3,000 lives ended. We saw images of planes crashing into buildings and of people jumping to their deaths from those buildings. The once-unimaginable was suddenly reality. Personally, it took me over a year to have nightmares of that day finally stop and to not look up whenever a passenger plane flew overhead.

This event changed forever how we all look at life and how we live our lives. But even though a quarter of a century has passed since that day, we must always remember and never forget.

Shawn Killackey

Mundelein