It's been a decade since that image lit up television screens across America.

It's amazing how short that time span seems to have passed...

10 years ago I was a freshman in high school, watching history unfold before my very eyes.

Since then I've watched our country change.

September 11, 2001, is a day that Americans won't forget. How could we? That day when two hijacked airplanes flew into the World Trade Center in New York City, another crashed into the Pentagon and still one more was grounded before it could inflict further damage upon our country marks the largest terror attack in the history of the United States.

Some 3,000 people lost their lives that day.

As we all pause to remember the lives lost in those attacks and pay homage to those who risked their lives to save others, we shouldn't do so with hate.

One day I hope we can look back on September 11, 2001, and instead of seeing the destruction, death and hatred brought forth on that day, see the progress we've made as a people. I hope that we'll be more than the borders that define our countries, the religious books from which we draw hope and the languages that separate us. I hope the hatred that led to and arose from that fateful day will have dissipated and that we will no longer be fighting hate with more hate.

But no matter how long it takes us to reach that point, I hope we will never forget. You have to know where and what you come from to move forward, and there's nowhere else worth moving.