Recent vs past: 9/11 vs Vietnam (memorials)

Hey guys,
This trip to the memorial was surprisingly really inspiring to me. I expected to feel emotionally connected to such memorials, especially considering that I went to the 9/11 one last year. However, this time it all just felt different.Trying to capture the experience on a camera actually made the experience at the 9/11 museum much more memorable. If you were near me during the beginning of the trip, you probably remember hearing me constantly say “Where are the scrolls? I want to draw over them and end up with the names!!” That was all I expected to actually inspire me about this memorial. I still can’t understand why. Then, when I talk a moment and looked down at the memorial, it hit me. Every name engraved around me was someone I could’ve walked by in the city years ago. They weren’t just strangers: they’re people! I think that every life matters, so the loss of so many struck me. The concept of the pools was honestly one that was hard to connect for me. Eternity pools? But they don’t represent forever. They represent loss. That moment my perspective changed. Those pools transferred from one place to the next and then to….? We don’t know where they went. To me, that was huge. No one know where we’re going in life and what could randomly happen at any moment. That’s why we should cherish every single moment of every day. You can never guess where life will take you, but you can guess where you take your life. You could make your life something special. You could do nothing, and just live. OR, you could do something great and be memorable, like all those people who passed away. Their names will live on until eternity. I hope that one day mine can, too. (just in different circumstances, of course.)
Well, a picture that I took that I really enjoyed capturing at this memorial was this one:

This same photo flipped vertically is this:

The reason I like this photo so much is because, not only does it capture the water falls along the pool, but it also captures something amazing. If you look at the 2 lines of light (one shorter than the other), it kind of looks like the twin towers. The longer tower is yet to get hit, while the shorter one is crashing down into that hole of nothingness.
Another image that I really enjoyed taking was this one:

I’m sure Gary Lee Bright was a great man. Honestly, I don’t know much about him. But as I said before, he was a man that was remembered. I love the way the light reflects on the plate where it says bright. I think it manages to make something so sad, into something uplifting. Like his brightness will forever live on. The tree that survived is pretty cool, too. My hand’s hurting too much to type about it though, haha.
Okay,Vietnam. I was dreading this part of the trip the whole walk there. I wasn’t feel well and this ten-minute walk sure did extend! “I just want to go homee!” “I wasn’t even alive when this happened!” “Why do I have to keep walking?!” -typical negative me. But when I got there, I was intrigued. It felt so personal. Maybe even more personal than the 9/11 memorial, which was really odd to me. It was so small and confusing, yet it was amazing. Even though I didn’t understand why it was structured the way it was, the words plastered all around me were beautiful. Even though it’s still hard to figure out what beauty is, I know it was definitely that. Every quote that I read affected me tremendously. “Dear daddy” These were REAL people that had families waiting for them. It was really incredible to see the things they’d say. One of my favorites was this quote:

I typed the quote on top of it, if you guys wanted to read it.
I really had an enjoyable time, laughing with you guys, being inspirired with you guys, and just getting to know each other better. This experience was definitely a positive one. So, overall, both of these memorials were amazing in completely different ways. They’re incomparable. So even though my title is them against each other, no one wins. It’s a tie.
Enjoy a few more pictures if you’d like:

See you guys Tuesday! (: