Home Sweet Home

Since today is Patriot Day, I wanted to take a step back from all the Italy planning with this post and reflect on the day. 

Where were you on September 11, 2001? I was in astronomy class, a junior in high school. It was first period, and I remember the teacher wheeling in a TV so we could watch the events unfold with the rest of the world. I remember the school’s observatory showing the news all day, and my geometry teacher refusing to cancel class because he wanted us to “stay normal.”

I remember my Mom crying a few days after the attacks when she learned that my grandpa’s cousin was in the second plane that hit the World Trade Center. Dorothy deAraujo is mentioned in several newspaper articles as being the most elderly person on flight 175, but what the articles do not mention is how talented an artist Dorothy was. She painted a piece of Disneyland that hung in my room as a child and I met her briefly when I was a toddler. While I don’t have any memories of the meeting, she’s smiling broadly in the photo with my sister and me, and for some reason that brings me comfort.

I always feel the wave of patriotism around this time of year, and it’s sweeping me up even more as we plan to travel internationally.

I’m so proud of my little blue passport with the eagle on the cover.  And as much I love to travel to places far away, I’m so grateful I can call America home.