Just two trips changed her whole outlook on life. Rylee Holder, a freshman at Baldwin High School, took a trip to Pearl Harbor in March of 2022, and a trip to the 9/11 memorial in July of 2022, and it changed how she views life.
“Pearl Harbor just has so much meaning behind it, and when I went there I read every single plaque, on every single wall, probably several times for some of them,” Holder said.
Pearl Harbor had a huge impact on America, here’s what Holder says about that.
“The gravity of that situation and how we picked ourselves back up so soon, it was just a really solemn moment, and it really humbled me,” Holder said.
At the memorial, you can ride a fairy from the island out to the USS Arizona. They have a memorial because the boat was still docked at the harbor when the attack took place. The boat is lying horizontally and the memorial is going vertically straight over it.
“They have this big open space and you can look over both sides and see the boat and I saw pollution where it still has gas and oil leaking out of it,” Holder said.
2,403 people lost their lives during this event, and so many more stepped up to try and protect the dock and everybody there.
“I was just awestruck after I had left,” Holder said. “I got to see and experience the devastation that this caused,”
9/11 took place on Sept. 11, 2001. It was a very tragic event for all of America, as many lives were lost. Freshman Rylee Holder not only went to the Pearl Harbor memorial, but also got to experience the 9/11 memorials as well.
Where the towers were hit. They bulldozed the rest of the two buildings and they took away all the rubble and made it into two big holes in the ground where the buildings used to be. Now, it is just a waterfall going over with all of the names of the people who died, so it’s just a beautiful fountain that just flows down into the ground.
“After I left, I was honestly just so sad. Holder said. Seeing all of those people’s names just made everything else so real, because if you were in that situation, you would know you wouldn’t be able to get out, and not really be able to say goodbye to anyone either. It’s just a really scary thing to think about.”
Many people have left both of these memorials very changed. These places impacted them more than we could even imagine.
“I learned to be grateful for what I have, and to not waste every day, because those people that went to the towers that day to just go to their job, they didn’t know that that was going to be their last day on Earth,” Holder said. “So what I took out of these trips was to not take your time here for granted, because you never know when it’ll be over.”
These two memorials have impacted so many people worldwide and have changed the way people do things in America.
“Going to these memorials just reminds me of how grateful I am and it really keeps me in check with my attitude towards everything because I need to take everything with lots of gratitude,” Holder said.