Ground Zero is one of the most emotional places in New York; the moment you get there, you can truly feel the grief of an entire country. But it is also a beautiful place. It has a beautiful memorial park and the surrounding buildings are wonderful––and those coming will probably be even better! So it is a place of mixed feelings and mixed emotions more than anything else.
To me, personally, is a place of hope. What happened on 9/11 and the reactions of the world to it were nothing other than acts of intolerance... But I do have hope in humanity, and that's one of the main reasons why I spent so many years trying to figure out a way of making this a better world. The problem is that having faith in humanity is not enough, and the effort of just one person won't change the way things work.
However, when I see the people that surround me, all making small changes, one at a time, I realise that everything is on the way to becoming better. And that makes me happy. It's hard to believe when the changes are so small you can't really see them in short periods of time. But that's exactly what faith/hope are all about. We have to continue working for a better world, just believing it will be worth it––even if our efforts are hardly visible sometimes!
Love,
Photography: Laura Beltran-Rubio
