One year ago my life and the lives of many others were changed forever. That was the fateful day of September 11, 2001.

It was the second week of school. I had just started going to public school. It was third hour and I was in music class. My teacher was Ms. Kline. Class had just started and, of course, people were goofing off. Ms. Kline had just started doing vocal warm-ups with everyone when suddenly the principal, Mr. Fox, came over the loud speaker and said that the twin towers had been hit. As soon as I heard this, a feeling that I had had earlier that day explained itself; what I had felt was an unexplainable sense of fear that seemed to just vanish when I heard about the attack.

In my next class I saw the second tower fall. For the longest time that day I felt like my life as I knew it was ending. "Peace", the word we take for granted, has a new meaning to me now and so does the word "war."

"War" is also a word we take lightly. For the people who grew up during the Vietnam War they grew up knowing the terrible reality of war. Most of the people born between the years of 1987-2001 had been shielded from the horror of war until September 11, 2001. Even now the war for our individuality as a nation is being fought. The people we are fighting seem to have overlooked one thing, and that thing is that when they attacked us they had tried to weaken us, but as a nation we cried out in one voice, “United we stand! We will not go down without a fight!”

As a nation in time of war, instead of turning on each other we came closer together. No matter how hard they try, they will never break the bond that we share as a nation. Just as we fought the British for our independence, we now fight for the independence of the people in Afghanistan from the power of the Taliban.

Just like in the movie Endless Waltz, Mariemaia said, “History is just like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever.” But I wonder if humanity is doomed to repeat history. Eventually, humanity will wipe itself out if we don’t change the beat of the Waltz.