I Was Good Enough, I Am Good Enough

 To my Audience,

     New York; a city that is diverse in so many unexplainable ways. There are so many cultures I grew up learning about whether it was through a new foreign plate I have never tasted, or a local Jamaican cultural festival. I grew up in a place that accepted all kinds of people, from tall to small or whether citizen or immigrant. New York is more than the tall skyscrapers that take your breathe away when they form a glowing skyline at night. Its a city that through ups and downs has always kept its chin up.

This September 11, 2016 something extraordinary happened at the 9/11 ceremony. It is a cloudy warm day and many of New Yorkers are here to commemorate the memory of their lost ones and to pay respects to the ones they love. They start to mention the names of the ones who have fallen, and I fall into a different place. I look around and I examine the faces around me; all full of sadness and pain. I start to feel their hurt, as I have every other year since 2001. Suddenly a ray of sunshine peaks through a cloud and hits my face. I look up at the sky and I see the sky clearing. At that same moment I can feel a moment of peace. I start to wonder how can I feel this way in a ceremony such as this one? As the sky cleared I noticed something that probably no one else did because they have already given in to their deep sorrow.

I noticed that the whole day I have felt sad and gloomy. But I think about how many people have come here to collect memories and their feelings with others. Everyone came here grieving their losses and the pain from that day of the attack that still haunts them;us. But we did not come here to grieve alone, but together. We did not come here to grieve on the victims whose lives were lost, we came here to celebrate how their loss brought us together. We came here not to celebrate the attack that our city survived, but on how strong our city has become after the attack. This insight and reflection reminded me of how every day might not be a good day, but their is good in every day. Maybe mentioning the names of the victims, brings sorrow and pain to others, but on this day their names reminded me that as they lost their lives united, their passing way have brought us together in this moment.

To me this was a way of serving each other because we were united and many times people just want someone to relate to and just be there for them. We can feel lost and feel lonely from time to time, but if we step back and looked at the big picture, something good can come out of our bad times. Someone stronger and wiser flourishes. So for that reason I thank my dark moments; the moments I felt like I couldn't make in school, or like I was not good enough. I thank them because at the end of the day, I did make it and I was good enough. I am good enough.

Joy-C R.

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