The Pool, the Peace Rally and September 11

13 years ago I was asleep in my bed, in the bedroom I’d slept in since I was eight years old. In a little less than three weeks, on my 19th birthday, I would be leaving home, officially and forever, for college, but my school started late so I was still asleep, no need to wake up early for my late summer afternoon shift at the pool where I was a lifeguard. Is it too obvious to say it was a liminal moment in my life? When I didn’t know who I was really or what was going on with the world or myself? I was sad, that’s for sure: my high school boyfriend was already at college and he wasn’t my boyfriend anymore and my heart was broken, though I was past crying myself to sleep at night. All my friends were already gone, off to exciting lives in…