The Fence

Watching so many tributes to 9/11 brought back a flood of memories of the last ten years. One memory in particular is so engrained in my brain: walking up to that chain link fence around the pit where the twin towers stood in the near past gave me goosebumps. New York City is always bustling with noise and activity; however, on that day as I walked up to the fence and put my fingers through it just like you do on the baseball diamond fences, I felt a deep, gut-wrenching quiet fill the air. Everything went silent as if the volume of the world was muted. I looked down into the gaping hole that remained of the ruins. Out of the corner of my eye, though, I could not get one thing out of my focus. The two stell beams that just so happened to stand tall in the shape of a cross melted my heart. I will never forget that sight, nor the absence of sound. The only thing I could hear was my heart pounding in my chest. New York City and the United States of America would never be the same. Nor would I.