poolboy6

Seven years ago today, my road I followed took a dramatic turn. I was asleep on my friend's couch when his roommate, Robin, woke me up. My mom was on the phone. "Dennis, turn on the TV. We're under attack." The first tower was falling as the picture came on.

Everyone was in a daze. I was only an hour away from the city, close enough that my little brother's seventh grade class had four kids who lost one or both parents in the towers. We all ended up at the bars. Shoulder to shoulder, staring at the TV, dead quiet. No one could make any sense of it.

We'd start to move again over the next couple days. There were fundraisers, clothing and food drives, blood drives, all filled beyond capacity. The outpouring of unity was amazing.

I still felt like I could do more. So, eleven days after the attacks, I enlisted in the US Army and the rest has been history. I found out a few days later that my grandfather enlisted in the Marine Corps eleven days after Pear Harbor.

So today is an important day to me. It's the anniversary of the day the old, lazy Dennis who was on a downward spiral died and the day the new Dennis was born.