Full circle.

Last night, a lot of people felt closure for the first time in 10 years. People had reason to celebrate as news came out about Osama bin Laden's death. We all know that it will be one of those "where were you?" moments when we're 40 and our kids ask us for their school project.

It was ironic that I was getting ready for bed when my brother knocked on my bathroom door to tell me the news. I had no words in reply, just a shake of my head and a sprint for the television.

We turned on CNN and behold, the headline in all caps, OSAMA BIN LADEN IS DEAD. The anchor was spewing out facts, entertaining us until the President was ready to deliver his address. It was way past our bedtime on a Sunday night, but we waited.

That's when I remembered where I was 10 years ago.
When the news of the terrorist attacks came out, I was 12 years old and incoveniently living in my father's home thousands of miles away in South India. It was way past midnight when I tried my hardest to ignore the phone ringing off the hook. What seemed like 20 minutes later, the television lit up the bedroom, forcing me to get out of bed and find out what was wrong.

I sat there for hours, staring and crying in horror and denial of what I was seeing. The clips of the planes crashing into the towers, the people running covered in ash, the people jumping from who knows how many feet from the sky to their deaths.

All I wanted at that moment was to be home.
10 years later, here I am. I may not have been here to mourn with my friends but I am here for the relief.
Last Sunday night, things came full circle. And even if it's only for a brief moment, it seems that everything's in order.

I leave you with Anderson Cooper's remarks from yesterday's show.

"After nearly ten years of waiting, ten years of imagining where he was, what his life was like, wondering if he would strike again, it is a relief to know he's gone. It's like exhaling after holding one's breath for a painfully long time. We all want to hear as much detail as we can, and that's natural and understandable. Someday, however, in the not too distant future, I hope we no longer give bin Laden the satisfaction of ever speaking his name or even remembering him in our nightmares."
"As the years pass and the years ahead, I hope it's not the wasted life of this mass murderer we remember. I hope instead we recall the lives of those we’ve lost."