This guest post comes from Melissa, the first non-family member I called after the attacks. This was supposed to go up yesterday, sorry!

There are moments in life when you are able to look at something and say, no, this is definitely not right, this is not the way things are supposed to be. September 11, 2001 is one of those days. Tomorrow is the anniversary and it is always a hard day for me. 12 years ago I was obviously asleep in my college dorm room loving every minute of this fabulous life I had. And then, in a matter of moments, everything was different. And I knew, even then, that these were moments that everything went wrong.

The entire world changed in those moments. Lives of thousands of people were cut short, but there were countless other lives that were forever altered. People changed jobs, became activists, enlisted in the army, didn’t leave on a vacation… there were children that were never born because in a moment, mom or dad wasn’t there anymore. Or maybe they were, and love wasn’t strong enough to keep a marriage together. Or maybe you met someone, took a chance on love, because you just couldn’t hurt anymore. And your life is better because of that love. Maybe there is a beautiful blessed baby today in your life because things went so terribly wrong. How many paths were changed?
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