The breakfast buffet stands, empty of the sizzling meat.   Pancakes wait for syrup. Scrambled eggs slowly cool. Potatoes with onions wait forgotten. Cereal and milk sit with spoon and bowl.   Students crowd the platters contemplating the vacant plate. We all want to have some chow before we leave to memorials and museums. […]

  I stand in the shadow of a silver spire, which extends, unending, into the hazy, cloud speckled sky.   Four sculpted soldiers, positioned at one end of the memorial, forever guarding the core values of the Air Force.   They stand unrelenting, unperturbed by the cluster of children snapping photos, whose voices are reminiscent […]

I am surrounded by metal arms swooping forward in a salute to those who lost their lives. Golden lights illuminate the tiny engravings, hundreds of names and dates, names and dates that mean the world to some.   The families who lost someone on the planes seem to be there, standing with me. Their cries […]

  The rough pool deck digs into my feet like tiny knives. Sounds of shouting people and lifeguard whistles fill the hot and heavy air.   The water stretches out in front of me, perfectly smooth, perfectly flat, perfectly undisturbed. Go, I tell myself. My legs spring off the deck. I soar through the air. […]