The Last One about 9/11

This is the last 9/11 related post I will write. Not that I've devoted so much time to it, mind you, but so many people have so many more interesting things to say about that day, and much more effective ways of expressing it, that I feel like anything I might say is weak in comparison.

So this is it.

And it's about a woman who is sort of my hero.

Her name is Lauren Manning.

If you've never heard of her, here's a little bit of her story.On September 11th, she was walking into One World Trade Center just as the plane hit.  A fireball went down the elevator bank and shot into the lobby. She was engulfed in flame -- burned over 80% of her body. She ran out of the building -- ON FIRE -- and was able to get help.

She says she made a choice. She decided to live. For herself, for her husband, for her 10 month old baby. She wasn't going to give up. She was going to fight.

And she did. She fought through rehab and surgery and years of physical therapy, and she's still here, despite ridiculous odds.

I've never met Lauren Manning, and I probably never will, but she is one of my heroes. Because she chose to fight when it would have been easy to surrender. Because she decided that she wouldn't quit, no matter how much it hurt or how hard it was.

I think that we all took different lessons from 9/11/2001. This is the one I've carried with me: you can never quit. In the face of adversity, you need to be willing to fight. And you have the strength to succeed, at whatever it is. Nothing is as strong as your will to triumph.

I don't know what the terrorists wanted to teach us and, frankly, I don't care. I know what I have learned from Lauren Manning -- and hers is the far more important lesson.