On September 11, 2001 we all became New Yorkers.

There’s something special and different about people from New York, maybe it’s their no bullshit attitudes that can turn into kindness at the drop of a hat, maybe it’s their love of baseball and football and art and music and history, maybe it’s because the city itself gets into your bones and fortifies a spirit built on a shared love for a place, maybe it’s their love of food, and all the different cultures that can be found there... maybe it’s all of it. I know some pretty awesome New Yorkers, one of my very first best friends was a New Yorker and I remember loving her accent as a kid. I love the fast talking and the highly expressive gestures when they’re excited or passionate about something.

What I love most though was what they taught us on 9/11, they were the embodiment of what it means to come together and be human, the rawness and unabashed love they gave to each other United this country for a small time. Love for fellow man was born out of that tragedy & that’s what I remember most.

I remember looking strangers in the eye and nodding and saying hello everywhere I went, asking how each other was doing, I saw the helpers come to life and I saw strangers become a family.

Somewhere along the way we’ve lost that, but I remember. I know that what unites us is greater than what divides us.

#neverforget