Boston Marathon: 10 Years Later

DISCLAIMER: I wrote this post on April 15, 2023, the ten year anniversary of the terror attack on my home city of Boston, MA. I tried to remember the emotions the best I could, and this is my account.

After everything that happened with the pandemic, and realizing how unique each of our stories are, I decided I'm going to try and remember more of the experiences I have gone through. Writing and blogging have always been one of my best ways to deal with things, and why not share my accounts!

ORIGINAL POST:

It was spring break, senior year. It was a gorgeous April day.

I was laying in bed watching “LOL” starring Miley Cyrus and Demi Moore (it’s a cute little indie movie. You should check it out).

Back in these days, I didn’t have an iPhone or smart phone. These were the days where the coolest technology was the fact that you could text a number and it would post a new tweet on your connected account, and you could get text alerts when you got notifications for people.

One of the people I got alerts from was Lisa (Ruocoo) Gaskarth, the now wife then girlfriend of the lead singer of my favorite band. She tweeted something about explosions at the Boston Marathon and I will never forget the confusion that crashed over me.

First of all, didn’t realize that people outside of the New England area knew what the Boston marathon was. I didn’t really have a grasp on the fact that people around the world have the ability to know about things in my little world.

Secondly, there wasn’t supposed to be explosions at the marathon. I did a quick almost rewind in my brain to go over what I was used to seeing every year and there were never explosions.

I got out of my bed and walked to my parents room who had the tv on, and just watched the news. I couldn’t look away. After some time, not sure how much, I grabbed my phone and texted the few people I knew that went to the marathon or would be in the area to check on them, and thankfully they were all safe.

The rest of that week was a blur, but also seemed to go in slow motion. There was the constant worry of who did it, which as we know turned into where they are, but also why? Why Boston? Why the marathon? Some of my worries were that because I lived close to Boston, maybe the person responsible was near by.

While they were looking for the responsible parties, my friend Megan and I had tickets to go see the bruins. My younger sister was supposed to go the day of the marathon, and didn’t go because of those events.

I will genuinely never forget walking into that game. We took the train in, and there were military guards EVERYWHERE. I’m used to seeing a handful of police offers and transit police officers, but getting off the train at north station and seeing a military man holding a massive gun I had never seen in person until that moment was the scariest but somehow most comforting moment of that week. I gave awkward little smile and nods as I walked by each person protecting us.

I started to feel anxiety creeping up, which I think would be normal. I felt anxious about if I was supposed to talk to them, just to say thank you or if that wasn’t allowed. I felt anxious because they hadn’t caught the people but I was walking into what’s referred to as a “soft target” I’m pretty sure, and genuinely didn’t know what the next few seconds, minutes, or hours held for me. There were so many scary thoughts running through my brain, and I was constantly scanning my surroundings. I’m pretty sure Megan and I just kinda held hands as we walked into TD Garden. I couldn’t get over that fact that something could happen, and we would be another part of this unfortunate tragedy.

That’s just how my brain works… call it depression/anxiety/paranoia, I call it leaving the house lol

What I didn’t realize, until a few days later is I was a part of history. The game I walked into was the one that made headlines because Megan and I were part of that crowd singing the national anthem. Another moment I’ll never forget.

I also remember sitting at one of my parents friends houses. We played outside because it was a pretty nice day, and as we sat there we saw so many helicopters flying around, searching for the guys we knew were responsible now. As it got dark, we all went inside because one of us got an alert that they may have located the guy.

I’ll never forget the cheers, the tears, the hugs, the high fives, the hell yeahs, and the relief that washed over everyone. We heard fireworks outside and cheers around town.

I remember people saying “you can run but you can’t hide” and giving so many compliments to the Boston Police force and all other agencies who helped.

The other wild thing I remember was for some time after these events happened, I talked to people and found out that they knew the younger culprit and that they had even partied with him at college that week. Some people played soccer with him in high school. It was crazy to me that people I knew, knew him, and that someone from around here could be capable of this atrocity.

While I remember this like it was yesterday, this tenth anniversary is a little extra memorable for me. I’m not sure of memorable is the correct word, but there’s now an added layer. What I never fully realized until almost three years ago, is that someday a little girl is going to ask me what I remember about these events that I’m living through. I’ve always been the kid to ask my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc what they remember and what it was like to live through other major events and I love hearing their take.

The fact that I’m going to be on the other side of the conversation for my daughter someday is mind blowing to me for some reason. I’ve always paid attention to current events, but I’m paying a little closer attention to things so I can share as much as I can with Sadie some day. I’m not sure exactly what I’ll say to her, so maybe I’ll just send her this to read.

Always thankful for those who ran towards the danger rather than running away, especially after just running for 26.2 miles. That’s the epitome of Boston Strong.