I didn’t know anyone there, I don’t think I even knew anyone who knew someone there, but today I think of every single one of them. I remember exactly where I was, I remember walking into a class that morning and being the only one who had seen the news and telling everyone the second tower had collapsed. Silence. The shock was real, reaching across this great country, but then the whole of us seemed to come together. I remember more public prayer during that time than I could ever recall before. We shared in the grief, we stepped up, we worked hard, we rebuilt. That’s what this great country is founded on in the first place. Perseverance. Freedom.

I’ve read so many amazing accounts of that day, of survival or selfless people, of miracles. So as I sat silently a few times during my day, well aware of today’s date I thought maybe I could just share a few of those stories.

Brian Birdwell on I Am Second – can’t watch it without tearing up

Bill Biggart was a photographer that took his last photos that day

Photographer Joe McNally made it about the faces of the people at Ground Zero

There are more, there are so many more. I know one day I’ll be much older, sitting in a chair and remember every single person who died, who gave all on this day. Not just the ones in the towers, but in the offices and in the fields and in the air. May God bless every single one of them and their families.