6 months, 6 thoughts

1. It feels like it was six weeks ago, let alone six months. Then again, it also feels like it's been way more than six months. That's what 's weird with these things, that they feel so recent and yet so far away in the past at the same time. Going home to Watertown has barely felt the same - driving past Vic and seeing styrofoam cups spelling out "Watertown Strong" in the fence is something I always make sure I do before I leave. And I don't know how long that will go on for. The cups may have left, the shirts may have left the windows of stores, but that feeling, that's gotta be around for a little while longer.

2. A decent amount of time after 9/11, when I could fully grasp everything that went on, I became slightly fascinated with all of the different stories of people in the World Trade Center, those who made it, those who didn't, and everyone else involved in their own way on that Tuesday morning. The same thing happened with this, where I have a little bit of a pull towards browsing around Wikipedia and finding out little details about what happened that day. But it's always felt forbidden, as though I have to make sure no one's watching before I click around.

3. From this point on, every day is one that's on the "next year" half of 2013/2014 Marathon Mondays. (Editor's Note: Marathon Monday of 2014 is actually April 21, so there still a few days before being halfway there.) Point is, I think that everything after the first couple of weeks since the attack has been part of the healing process. People are meeting their saviors, their fellow runners or volunteers, and whatever sense of normalcy that can be returned is slowly being built back. It sucks that "normal" might not ever be the same for a lot of people, but everyone has persisted so far.

4. If you talk to anyone who was there on April 15, there's no doubt in anyone's mind that they're going to be there next year. Everyone who made it at least halfway through the marathon has automatically qualified for the 2014 race, but there will be even more people than were there this year. And I think that speaks to the pride people want to share with everyone involved in this. With everything that's happened in the past six months, everyone has to have had some source of happiness, reconcile, pride, whatever you wanna call it. And I think that there's no better way to display it than by being at the finish line in 2014.

5. As much hate as there is in the world, that we could see in just ten seconds, there's even more love. I went through both sides of this within three days, and one side has certainly won out six months later. There's nothing I can say next without tying into my next point, so...

6. One of the biggest ways that I've seen the good side of things has been through sports, especially the Red Sox and Bruins. Bringing out the first responders, the survivors, everybody involved with this has brought everyone together and made everyone closer. There's a special place in the hearts of many people for sports, but that's even bigger with all of this, and everything that's been done. We rode the Bruins to the Stanley Cup Final in June, and we're riding the Red Sox through the playoffs in October. As much as things have changed, there are things that we know will always be around.