A Week and Two Years...

It's been exactly one week since the 35W bridge collapsed into the Mississippi taking with it cars and lives. A freak accident that directly and indirectly affects all of us in some way.

Today as I was heading over to Luther for chapel to listen to an awesome Jim Boyce sermon and get some Jesus, I was distracted and decided to take the long way over. The now very long way over. I decided to drive through my old stomping grounds, The University of Minnesota, where I lived for two years just a block away from where the bridge collapsed last Wednesday. I was not able to drive the roads I used to because they were blocked off, so I ended up driving around aimlessly with extreme feelings of nostalgia washing over me and memories of my youthful two years at the U cascading through my mind. I could not block out any of it. It all came rushing back, especially the great times that were once in a life time experiences that I feel blessed to have experienced with wonderful friends, who are all well and good.

It is a strange feeling when your past comes crashing down, literally. I felt the same way on 9/11. The disbelief, the memories flooding my mind with me powerless to stop them. Remembering going to Lincoln Center with my mom to see the Nutcracker Ballet and looking up at the Twin Towers and their awesomeness. And that one day, I felt like my whole past, my whole childhood, the symbol of it anyway was taken away from me. It all came crashing down and I was left with a feeling of emptiness which is impossible to describe. I feel the same now with this most recent tragedy. And both times I cried and cried for those who lost their lives, for those left behind to face another day always questioning why and how come it happened in the back of their minds.

I know this probably all sounds a bit dramatic. I am saddened by recent events, the loss of innocence in a way. For some this is the first time such a tragedy has happened and thank God for that. For the rest of us, well, all we can do is pull ourselves together, say a prayer, and try as hard as we can to move on, and know that day by day things will become easier to handle, the memories will subside and life will go back to the usual monotony that we all knowingly or unknowingly crave.