September 11, 2006 -- The 5th Anniversary

Back to Sept. 11, 2001, my husband (he was my boyfriend at that time) and I were listening to BBC broadcast after came back from dinner. Breaking news came over the radio a couple minutes before 9:00p.m (Malaysia Time) announced that a flight crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City. Both of us were shocked by the terrific news. At first, we looked at each other suspiciously because we were not confident with what we had listened. And then, in no time, we moved closer to the radio and paid full attention to the news. Short after we were sure with what we had heard, the reporter announced a second flight crashed into second building of WTC, this time, both of us were too astonished to speak.

A year ago, my husband and I came to this immigrant country -- The United States to pursuit our dream. Coincidentally, we are living in Pennsylvania State, which is a neighbor state of New Jersey. It takes approximately 5 hours from State College to New York City. Recently, we went to New York City for vacation. In the hot summer day, at the ground zero, we were not alone, there were plenty of tourists just like us... looked at the huge empty space, surveyed the buildings that still erect in the air, read the heroes rolls on the wall, and imagined the tragedy happened five years ago....

About a month ago, we went to cinema to see the movie that we had long waiting -- World Trade Center. To our surprised, some of our American friends refused to see and discuss about this movie. Perhaps they just do not want to revive the sad memories that have been kept at the innermost of their hearts. I can understand their feeling; however, I think it is important for American young generation and also people in the world to see this movie. 9/11 is a tragedy that should not be forgotten but needs to be remembered and passed on to our future generations. We should learn from this expensive experience, and understand the role of change in our lives.

Life can only be understood backward,
but it must be lived forward.
~Soren Kierkegaard~