Every year I emotionally relive what happened on this day in 2001.

We all do. How could we not? This is a day in history that changed everything. It changed the world and the way we looked at it. It changed us.

For many people in my generation, it was the first time in our lives that we realized just how vulnerable we really are. The first time that we realized everything could literally change in an instant.

Every year on this day I feel the need to share my experience of what happened on September 11, 2001. Where I was, what I remember, how I felt, what I did. I feel the pull to say these things out loud. To tell them to others. And from scrolling through my social media feeds, I know I am not the only one who feels this either.

Maybe this is just a way for us to memorialize the events that took place and acknowledge our own experiences.

Perhaps the act of verbalizing these things helps us continue to process a day that we still cannot fathom even 20 years later.

But, I think a huge reason for our collective need to talk about the specifics of this day is to be reminded that we are not alone.

That even on that terrible day where lives were ended, the world seemed to stand still, and Americans were changed forever – even then – we were not alone.

Not ever.

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Sending love to all those who continue to be affected by the events of September 11, 2001.