Marching On: One Show in September Remembering 4/27

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It's September 3rd. It's a normal day in the city of champions, at least it feels like it. Just 5 months earlier, the tragedy that befell our city is still fresh inside my mind.

Since then, I honestly had felt a sense of loneliness that I'd never felt. Nobody back home in Georgia had ever really experienced what we went through, and I didn't really know how to talk about it. With a multitude of thoughts buzzing in my head, focus was needed especially on the first day of the Alabama football season.

Pregame begins, and as I stand on the field while the first responders from that faithful day are honored, there's a calmness in Bryant-Denny that I haven't felt. And the roars of the crowd for those brave men and women were more than deserved.

Finally both Kent State and Alabama take the field, and we all in that stadium feel a sense of normalcy. Football is here, we're yelling at the refs for bad calls, cheering loudly when Alabama scores...

In a sense, I feel some type of healing beginning. It's slight, but by halftime, my focus is elsewhere.

Ever since I stepped back onto campus, multiple thoughts have been running through my head.

"Should I transfer away? Is Alabama even right for me? Does anybody else feel like things are better?"

The most important one however..."Will we get this Halftime show right?"

The MDB has been planning a special tribute for remembrance of 4/27/11. In short, this show has to be perfect, not because I want it to, but because all of us want it to. As we wait for the first half to end, I'm just trying to get into a zone. We've got only one chance to show how much we love Tuscaloosa.

First half is done. Go time.

I don't remember much from that day. Alabama won, everybody went home happy. But most importantly I realized one thing.

This town is home, and us spelling Tuscaloosa on the field with the crowd applauding helped me heal. For one brief moment, we were all family, no matter what happened.

It's been ten years, and this show won't be forgotten. A show that helped me get better.

A show that helped us all get better.