Thank You: A Tribute to Those Who Fought in Afghanistan

I was about 8 months old on 9/11. But aside from that, almost everything in this is exactly what it was like for me. This was penned by my sister, Annalissa.

I wasn’t yet thought of by my parents when 9/11 happened. I was born almost a year after. Instead, I grew during the war and never knew it. I probably heard references to the Twin Towers. I know the pictures really well. Afghanistan is associated with my childhood because I heard it on the radio all the time. I heard of soldiers going overseas to Afghanistan all the time and my childhood brain thought they were going to some soldier party. I probably asked my parents what they were doing there, but I don’t remember what they answered or anything. As I grew older, reading more (history) books, I read more about the Twin Towers. I met people who were alive when it happened. Who had been affected about what had happened to their country right before their eyes. Noting that it had happened in the U.S., I left it as something that didn’t affect us. I never realized that the Twin Towers were in New York and New York isn’t so far from Canada. I never imagined how I would feel if I heard of planes crashing in a tower and killing so many people. I never thought about how everyone felt; knowing of the attacks and not knowing what the attackers were about to do next.  I now know that if that has happened in my lifetime, I would have been nervous. I would no longer go outside at dark. But the attack didn't happen in my lifetime, and, as the saying goes, ‘Ignorance is a bliss.’I never put the Twin Towers and the soldiers going to Afghanistan together in my head. Ever. I have no idea why not. I never asked my parents if our soldiers were still in Afghanistan.I grew up in ignorance that, somewhere in Afghanistan so many soldiers died to give me the childhood I have. Some soldier might have even died the day I was born. But I didn’t know that. I didn’t know it until this year. The facts I had been told didn’t click until this year. And now, thinking of those soldiers, it hurts. It hurts to think that they were hurt, while I thought they were at a party. It hurts to think that they were dying, being wounded, fighting, while I thought the world was at peace. Every time I hear of a soldier being wounded or dying over there, I feel responsible for him.  Today I thank every soldier, Canadian, American, or of any other nation that was there. I thank you for giving us our childhood. "Thank you" doesn’t seem adequate, but that’s all I have. I can’t even say, ‘I prayed for you all that were there.’ I can’t even say, ‘I thought about you soldiers over there a lot and I felt sorry for you.’ In short, I have nothing to give but "thank you", while some of you gave all you had. Thank you. 

~ / / ~

Greater love hath no man than this, 

than a man lay down his life for his friends.

John 15:13