What 9/11 Taught Me 20 Years Later

It was a beautiful clear blue sky day when I drove to my upholstery class in rural Kansas. I was looking at the sky and feeling thankful for the sun on my face, and thinking about the progress I was making on my chair. It was going to be beautiful.

The chair had come from a yard sale. Across the cluttered lawn, I saw its tall, regal back and was drawn to it. The style was simple and elegant, but the upholstery was old and dusty. A new fabric would elevate the simple chair into a signature piece.

The day before, we had learned how to remove the old fabric and make a pattern for the new. When I pulled off the chair’s faded upholstery, I saw that it had once been in a flood. My instructor wasn’t too pleased with my choice and encouraged me to find another piece for this class. But I didn’t have anything else. I could see what it could become, and I didn’t want to give up.

As my thoughts reflected on the previous day’s class, I noticed a plane in the sky. Usually, you can see the long contrails going across the entire horizon. But now I saw that the contrail was in a circle. “Hmm.” I thought, “That’s strange. They’re turning around. I wonder why.” That was the only plane in the sky as far as I could see.

When I got to my class, I was a few minutes late. I walked in, and the radio was on. Everyone was working on their projects, but they weren’t talking to each other. They were listening to the radio.

At first, it didn’t make sense. I listened and concentrated on trying to figure out what they were talking about on the radio. A building? A plane? Where was this? New York? It seemed unreal. I opened my flip phone and called my husband. I told him to turn on the news. He stayed on the phone and described what he was seeing.

It felt like the darkest day of our lives.
Eventually, he would lose his job, and we would struggle to pay the rent. It felt like the life we were enjoying had come to an end.

Today, 20 years later, I reflect on that day, and I can see what it taught me. I hope that I can pass on what I learned to my children who are facing their own dark days.

I want them to know that on your darkest days, you can’t believe that there will never be light again. You can’t believe that everything good is over.

Yes, life as you know it will change, but it will continue. There will be light again. There will be laughter again. You will find joy, and yes, even love.

The chair from my upholstery class turned out beautiful. I sat in it many times, feeling the seams stitched with memories of that day. But what I learned from that class, and what I learned from that day, was more than how to recover a chair. It was how to keep going to create something beautiful out of destruction.

Twenty years later, I’ve gone through days that have personally been much harder. Times when I thought the only way out was to give up. And yet, life continues. I’ve lived through experiences I never thought possible. There has been sadness, but there has also been joy. There has been hurt, but there has also been love.

What I’ve learned from 9/11 is that when our innocence is destroyed, we can continue with wisdom. When hatred and death and all the things you want to run from find you, you can still create beauty. You can still find love.