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The story that affected me the most was Nick's story. I am very close with my mother so I can't even imagine the hurt and anger that he felt. Seeing the hurt in his eyes made me appreciate my mother even more. Every little thing she does for me means so much. When his mother died, Nick "lost" his dad. He was alone throughout the process of coping. That must've made it so much harder to deal with the loss of his mother. I was very glad to hear that he and his dad had gotten closer. When Nick was talking about Osama Bin Laden he expressed that he used to be angry at him, but now he doesn't hate him. He says " I don't even know this guy, how can I hate him?" That was very powerful to me because it shows he has dignity and respect, even if things didn't go his way.

I really appreciated the time-lapse in this film. It showed the slow progression of new hopes and strength. The character that progressed the most, in my opinion, was Ling Young. From the beginning she stayed strong, but at times felt weak. After undergoing multiple surgeries she remained strong and happy, even when her body disagreed. She stated "It happened, but I'm alive." That's the mind set everyone should have when going through a rough time.You can see the progression of all of the characters. Most of them have trouble coping. Many remain "stuck" in the guilt or depression stage. It takes most of them the full 8-9 years to finally have enough courage to move on or try to forget.

The most important thing that I took away from this story was to live my life to the fullest. To cherish every day that I have with family and friends because you never know when it might end. This film has truly inspired me to enjoy life.

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     Every individual had a touching story that I felt as we watched there lives change during the course of eight years. Tough decision, but Nicholas Chirls story about his mother hit me the hardest. Mostly because during my childhood, there was never a father figure role model until I became a teenager, so my mother was the one raising me. Just thinking about losing her makes me want to lose it. How much he wanted to make his mom proud and follow her footsteps made me think of myself.

     Through the eight years, Nicholas was at first angry with everything, wanted to punch people and lost connection with his dad. Picked up a job in the same business as his mother to try to relive what she did everyday for him. graduated college in B.A. for Economics. As the years went by he realized he had to be himself, let go of the anger, mature to build a bond back with his father. "You come to terms when you left go of the anger," Nicholas said. Power statement because it should that eventually he was able to over come such a struggle and move up. His maturity of giving up the anger helped him build a relationship back with his father and helped him become happy again. I respect Nicholas for being able to let go of the anger because there's no way I would be strong enough for that.
   
     I believe it was a strength because it showed how at first couldn't cope with this tragedy and showed how they came to terms, adapted to new life, and how they still continued with life. This video showed how to just appreciate every little thing in life. Even if your having a bad day, week, or month someone has it way worse there. Were lucky for everything we own in life that we typically just look over like its no big deal.

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All stories were very impacting and moving. It has to be absolutely horrible losing a son, brother, mother or anyone in life but the one that impacted me the most was Nick's story. For some reason I kept putting myself in Nick's shoes without realizing it. This is why his story impacted me the most. Losing anybody would be devastating but for some reason I really felt Nick's pain. It must have been an extremely horrible experience to not be able to see your mother anymore at such a young age. My favorite quote of the movie was when Tanya said. " The good of grief is that it meant you loved someone so much that it was hard to let go." I really liked this quote because it can not be more true. The effect that the time lapse had on the documentary was that we got to see the people over a longer period of time. I think this was a nice plus because you get to see how the people changed. Opinions change, the grieving process continues, and people eventually heal but do not forget. Most of the other documentaries don't show this whole process and that is why this one stood out to me the most.

Something else that I found very interesting was the way that each people dealt with the loss. I think it was very interesting to watch the documentary with that perspective because it provides a good insight into how people cope with loss. The most important thing that I took away was that people have interesting stories that are worth listening to. There should be more documentaries like this because each story is different and can teach us something important.

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I was most affected by the story of  Nick Chirls while watching this documentary. His story affected me because anyone, including me, can relate to his story. We all have a mother, or mother figure, that we know and love. To have her ripped from your hands would be devastating. Chris knew that his mother was in the tower as it fell. He knew that his life would never be the same and there was absolutely nothing he could do to help her. He must have felt so helpless. Then, on top of losing his mother, he lost connection with his father because his father moved on too quickly. Nick lost both parents because of this tragic event. After the recovery process began, Nick started working on Wall Street to follow in his mother's footsteps and every day he felt closer to her. Eventually, however, he had to realize that it was time to move on with his own life. "Maybe I'm not my mother" Nick ponders. He knows that he has to move on.
     Moving on, the documentary made it pretty clear that moving on is the best thing to do in a situation like this. Every single character ended up moving on and being happier. Tanya was one of the first to move on completely and get remarried; Tim was the last to move on and he was physically and mentally exhausted after seven years of searching for answers. It is important to mourn for loved ones that have been taken away, but mourning only causes sorrow and grief. One cannot truly be happy again until they have moved on.
     The Time-lapse structure of this film created a more personal connection with all of the characters. We became part of their lives for eight years, watching them heal, or not heal, and saw how eight different individuals handled the process. The only weaknesses are that we did not get very much detail from each person because they had to fit eight people's thoughts and feelings in an hour and a half, and also the thoughts seemed a little disjointed because of the skipping from one person to the next randomly.

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The story that affected me most was of Nick Chirls, I really saw how much the loss of his mother affected him and his relationship between his father and himself.  I am very close to my mother she was a single mother in the early parts of my life, while my father went through a mid life crisis.  I can only imagine how differently his life would of been if his mom survived that day or was not involved completely.  Would he have followed the same career path of his mother or have gone a different route? I can't even imagine how it would feel to not see my mom every again. Nick doesn't believe shes gone "I expect her to walk onto the subway at any time". Because she used to travel the same way as him he thinks everyday he will see her in passing rushing to an appointment.  

The time lapse over the eight years was a strength because it showed how the people thought processes changed over time.  Some of them went from terribly sad thinking  they would never recover to having a happy life again.  It also showed the victim's lives improve and change for the better allowing them to move on. 

The most important thing I took away from this documentary was that cherish life and do not take anything for granted.  You never know when something unexpected is going to tear your life apart.  When the people that died on 9/11 woke up that morning they had no idea what was going to happen that day or did their families.  Just a few hours later their lives would change forever.    

Rest in Peace, Maria

This is a picture of Maria Tiberi, an OSU student who died last night in a car crash.  Her father is sportscaster Dom Tiberi.

Maria took my poetry class two years ago and was just a warm, kind-hearted, talented, and fun-loving young woman.  It makes me very sad to hear she is gone.

Her family will need our prayers and thoughts and my heart goes out to them.

Just want to share this news, students, and remind you to please be safe out there in life and on the roads.

Mike

Maria with her father, Dom.  She wrote a lot of poems about him, and kidded with him a lot.

This was our class at the old OSU campus in Delaware.  Maria is on the far right next.

Abdul Salam Mallahi, worked at the Marriott Hotel in the world trade center.  He was originally born in Yemen and described as a kind hearted honest worker. He was one of the 28 muslims who died on the day of the attack on the world trade center. That day Mallahi walked into work like any other day not expecting one of the worst ordeals in human history. Countless people owe there escape that day to Mallahi who helped them escape the attack. Unfourtunatly he himself could not escape and meet his demise that day. I would say that Mallahi is a beacon in the muslim community and represents and honors his religion as a true hero.