Calling this "Obligatory 9/11 Post" is too disrespectful

but I'm not really sure how else to go about it. As everyone in the entire country has said already, a decade ago today our country was changed forever. The generation(s) who had come to take America's freedom and security for granted were rudely awoken. The entire world felt somber and I remember being upset at my little brother and sister for coming home from school with smiles on their faces, blissfully unaware. My little sister told me once she doesn't remember it at all, which is unsurprising given that she was 7. But I was 11, and I will never forget walking into Mrs. Frank's 6th grade Advanced Math class, late as usual, my interest piqued to see the TV was on. Seeing the burning building, I thought we were watching a movie, and I will never forget how multiple people shushed me as I asked what we were watching, or how mere seconds later the second plane hit the second tower and I noticed the red "LIVE" on the top corner of the screen and despite not really knowing what was happening or where those buildings were or why it was important, I staggered backwards, hitting my back painfully on the handle of the cubby behind me. I will never forget what it was like to see grown-ups be afraid, or to watch as my classes dwindled to the single digits by the end of the day, as parents picked their kids up to take them home. There isn't a single day from all of my years of education that will ever be remembered in such detail as that day. 

And now it's ten years later, and I'm 21 and still at school, and we're still entrenched in the war--a war so far removed from my immediate life that it's reprehensibly easy to forget about, but a war nonetheless--that resulted from that day, and I am...at a bit of a loss. I remember that day. I will never forget that day. But does remembering that day mean that today should have been as somber, quiet, and full of negative feelings as that day a decade ago was? Should I feel BAD that I had a really good day today? At what point are we allowed to be aware of what today is the anniversary of without letting that cast a grey shadow of melancholy over the day? Maybe it's incredibly selfish to want to be able to enjoy my day despite the date making me cringe. I would light a candle, but they're not allowed in the dorms. Is there a way just living my life today can be regarded as anything but disrespectful? I'm thankful for all the lives that were given, or changed irrevocably, so that I could live it. But...I don't feel like I'm doing it right, or something.

The memorial is pretty cool.