Another 4th of July is here, except this one marks the 10th anniversary of what was arguably the most spectacular 4th I ever had. It’s especially true as the place I celebrated the 4th ten years ago no longer exists.

July 4th 1995 — Location: Lower Manhattan Island. Some friends of mine and myself decided to take a road trip to NYC that year for the 4th. I had never been in the city without my folks there, and it was the first extended road trip I had taken to date (having only had my license for a little over a year). After the arduous 12 hour drive to NYC, we checked into our hotel of choice, the Marriott located at the World Trade center. On the evening of the 4th, we made our way up to the roof of 2 WTC…it was raining a little, but that certainly didn’t dampen our spirits any as we arrived to the top of the tower. From our perch almost a quarter mile up, we could see several fireworks shows: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, The Bronx…all the boroughs have their own shows. We could also see 2 displays over in Jersey. It was without a doubt one of the most breathtaking scenes my eyes have ever had the pleasure of taking in; leaps and bounds beyond what I’m used to in my small city. Six years and two months later, both the tower we were on and the hotel we were staying in would be wiped from the Manhattan city-scape.

I was going through some old shoe boxes full of stuff about a year ago and stumbled across the room key the Marriott gave me for the room (yeah, I swiped it…come on, I was 17); it’s a little worn out after 10 years of sitting in a box, but in relatively good shape. I remember gasping out loud when I stumbled across it after all these years, I had completely forgotten I had it.

So this 4th has a little bit more meaning, and in more ways then one. Ten years ago I was 17…young, naive (though I certainly wouldn’t have thought so at the time), innocent. And certainly never thinking anything remotely like the events of 9/11 would (or even could) occur. At 27 I’m still young, still a little naive, but am certainly aware of the atrocities that can be brought about by hate/misunderstanding/ignorance.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe 4th of July. I know I will. Cheers.