I was planning to write a blog yesterday complaining about how our flight from Chicago was delayed on Monday night but, as we were taking the bus to our car at 1:30 am, I saw the date scrolling on the bus’ electronic ticker. September 11th change so many things for us as Americans, but most especially our views on traveling. Traveling for fun became viewed almost as an unnecessary risk by many though, obviously, not by us.
The first trip we had planned after then just so happened to be two and a half weeks later…to New York City. As with most of our trips, we had planned it months beforehand and had expensive show tickets to a show we really wanted to see. After some great thought as to if we should go, and even whether or not it would be disrespectful to go, we decided to continue with our trip. Driving there was odd. There was a lot of traffic and we got stuck on the ramp into the Lincoln Tunnel. From that vantage point you could see lower Manhattan with smoke still billowing out from between the buildings. We had taken a trip about two weeks before September 11th to New York and had decided on that trip to skip out on seeing the World Trade Center because we knew we were coming back. That fact made them not being there all the more poignant.
Being in New York so soon after was a profound experience that has now been burned into my memory. We rode the subway as far as we could into lower Manhattan and then walked the rest of the way through dreary rain. We weren’t going there so we could say “We were there,” we were going more so we could pay our respects. Seeing the wreckage and the hundreds of flyers with the names and faces of the missing is still something I’m not fully capable of describing. Indeed, to this day, I have a very hard time going there or even watching footage from that day. Later that day we went to our show, a wonderful musical comedy that we had seen several times before. It was a desperately needed laugh and it really kind of let us feel some sense of normalcy, even if only for a few hours.
It wasn’t until 2003, when Maya was born, that we really started traveling a lot. I think, for us, we wanted to in part because of 9/11. Rather than allowing the actions of a few make us fearful of the world, we chose to seek it out so we could understand and respect the many different countries and cultures out there. Now, we view travel not as a way to boast about where we’ve been, but as a way to better ourselves and hopefully our child. We have made many friends around the world and have been places I never would have dreamed of going to. I can only hope that others will someday follow our lead and discover the wonderful places and people our small world has to offer them.
The first trip we had planned after then just so happened to be two and a half weeks later…to New York City. As with most of our trips, we had planned it months beforehand and had expensive show tickets to a show we really wanted to see. After some great thought as to if we should go, and even whether or not it would be disrespectful to go, we decided to continue with our trip. Driving there was odd. There was a lot of traffic and we got stuck on the ramp into the Lincoln Tunnel. From that vantage point you could see lower Manhattan with smoke still billowing out from between the buildings. We had taken a trip about two weeks before September 11th to New York and had decided on that trip to skip out on seeing the World Trade Center because we knew we were coming back. That fact made them not being there all the more poignant.
Being in New York so soon after was a profound experience that has now been burned into my memory. We rode the subway as far as we could into lower Manhattan and then walked the rest of the way through dreary rain. We weren’t going there so we could say “We were there,” we were going more so we could pay our respects. Seeing the wreckage and the hundreds of flyers with the names and faces of the missing is still something I’m not fully capable of describing. Indeed, to this day, I have a very hard time going there or even watching footage from that day. Later that day we went to our show, a wonderful musical comedy that we had seen several times before. It was a desperately needed laugh and it really kind of let us feel some sense of normalcy, even if only for a few hours.
It wasn’t until 2003, when Maya was born, that we really started traveling a lot. I think, for us, we wanted to in part because of 9/11. Rather than allowing the actions of a few make us fearful of the world, we chose to seek it out so we could understand and respect the many different countries and cultures out there. Now, we view travel not as a way to boast about where we’ve been, but as a way to better ourselves and hopefully our child. We have made many friends around the world and have been places I never would have dreamed of going to. I can only hope that others will someday follow our lead and discover the wonderful places and people our small world has to offer them.
No comments:
Post a Comment