I was eleven, when I saw the horrors of the world. I was eleven, when I saw the strength of a nation and its people. I was eleven, when I discovered the true power of hope; and I was eleven, when the Twin Towers fell.

I woke up the morning of September 11, 2001, and I felt different. I didn’t know it at the time, that different was how I would feel every time my life would change or something bad would happen. Every time a friend died, every time I lost someone I loved, I would feel the same way I felt the day I woke up on the day or nation, once again, changed.

I can still remember waking up and not feeling like I should be getting ready for school. Having a strange feeling that I could not place or even put a name to. Not getting ready for school, on a school day, was weird for me, because I truly loved school. I went every day, and I cannot remember missing a single day, until this day.

When I walked out into the living room to see where my mom was, I was presented with a scene that I have witnessed almost every day until then. My mother was digging through her purse trying to find her keys, while my brother sat on the couch laughing and pointing at the keys on the table. I told myself again, that this was just another normal, ordinary day, with a strange feeling.

The phone started to ring and my mother paused with a confused look on her face. The phone never rang this early and I could tell that she was thinking the same thing. Everyone we knew, who would call, was already at work. When she answered the phone, a loud panicked voice greeted her. I knew the voice right away; it was my cousin Eric, who is a Marine, and was stationed in Hawaii at the time. He told my mother to turn on the television. When she asked which channel, he replied, “Any channel! Every channel! It’s everywhere!”

The first imaged displayed was tower one, billowing with smoke. A plane had just flown into the top part of the tower and the news casters were all trying to figure out if the plane was thrown to far of course, because of a malfunction, when suddenly another plane would fly into the tower. People we shown running and screaming. Many ran into the towers to try and help, not knowing what would shortly take place. My mom spent the rest of the day on the phone tracking down family members and talking to others family member that were in the military, while trying to explain to my brother and myself what was going on and why so many people were so scared.

By the end of the day, both towers had fallen, another plane had flown into the Pentagon, and another went down in Pennsylvania (thanks to brave people on board the plane trying to make sure the plane would not reach its destination and many other lives would be spared), and over 2,000 people would be dead or fighting for their lives beneath the rubble of the towers. It was the darkest day I had ever witnessed of our nation. America was hit and we were hit hard.

It is a horrific thing, as a child, to have the people you love and look to, in every time of need, to be at a loss for what to do. To be scared and unable to comfort you. However, there is an extraordinary thing that happens in the face of human suffering: people find courage, they never knew existed, and they help people rebuild and to be able to find where to go from there. They do not give up the Hope they have deep in their hearts. In the months following our nation’s tragedy, I was able to witness true compassion and strength I had never known until then.

Many people would try to explain to me the events of September 11, 2001, however, none would register with me more then what my mother had to tell me. My mother would try to explain to me that sometime there is a darkness in some people that cannot be overcome. That no amount of love or compassion could change. She also told me that this means we should never stop hoping, or showing people love, even when we feel all is lost, because we never truly know when love will break through, and when people will reach out to help others. I believe, for this reason, the earthquake in Haiti also had an immense impact on my life, in regards to the hope I still have for the human race.

It is one extraordinary thing to be there for your nation in its time of need, however, it is a true act of human kindness to come together for another nation.

When the earthquake in Haiti occurred, many were killed and even more were displaced from their home without any of their belonging, food or clean water. I wasn’t sure if anything would be done to help them. Fortunately, for me in my lifetime, I was able to witness the love people have for human life and their unbelievable willingness to put an end to human suffering and to give all that they have (food, clothing, money) to people they have never met.

I feel truly blessed every day that I get a chance to see how amazing real people are, and I hope to inspire that kind of greatness in the people I meet and the next generations that I will watch grow and live.