when the world stopped turning? I realize September 11th was last week, but I have been reflecting on that fateful day and the ten years that have passed since. I was 17 and had just started my senior year of high school. I decided to go back and look at my journal from that year, wondering what I'd written that day. Well, I missed that day but wrote about the attacks 4 days later. This is what I wrote:"On Tuesday, the 11th of September a very terrible thing happened. Some terrorists hijacked 4 airplanes (with lots of passengers) and ran two of them into the twin towers in New York. Another went into the Pentagon in New York (I know this isn't accurate, but that's what I wrote), and the last one was headed for the White House but some brave passengers stopped it and it crashed somewhere in Pennsylvania. Thousands of innocent people were murdered, and everything in all 50 states (including airports) shut down for a few days. This could be the start of world war 3. It is a very serious thing. It is even worse than Pearl Harbor. Next Saturday is Homecoming. I want to go so bad!!!"
Yes, I went from the attacks to Homecoming in the same paragraph. It's like, "Yeah this big thing happened, but now back to my life and my own trivial things." I seriously could not believe that was all I had written! Although, as a little 17 year old, I don't think I really realized the enormity and tragedy of that day. The whole thing seemed surreal and far away from me. It was hard to imagine it as an actual event, rather than some horrible movie they kept playing over and over on TV. I want to write, for my own records, what that day was like for me. So if you're bored already, feel free to skip.
I remember rolling out of bed that morning and barely being ready as my ride pulled up. Suzy Christensen and her dad gave me a ride to school every morning. The first thing she said to me when I got in the car was, "Did you hear about the airplane crash?" Still half asleep I, of course, had no clue what she was talking about. I only half listened as they repeated things they had seen on the news. I thought it was some little private airplane and maybe 1 or 2 people had died. And I am embarrassed to say I had no clue what or where the twin towers were. And I thought the crash was an accident. I had no idea what I was about to walk into at school! Everyone was in a frenzy talking over the situation and that's when I first knew something serious was going on. I got to my 1st period English class was Mrs. Trelease and everyone was so riled (including her) that she didn't make us have class that day. She turned on the TV instead and we began watching the news coverage. That's when I saw it. A dark shape came from off camera and headed straight for the other tower. I thought it was a bird at first, but then it crashed into the second tower and with lots of smoke and fire, the second tower fell. Everyone in my class gasped. No one could believe what we were seeing! No actual school work was done that day. Each class turned into a discussion over that mornings events and we spent the whole day with the news on, trying to grasp what was actually happening in New York.
Like I said before, I knew it was a big deal, but I didn't actually grasp the severity of the situation. Then a year later when I was a nanny in Virginia, I took a train to New York City one Saturday. I got it after that. Being at ground zero a little less than a year later was a very emotionally heavy experience. There was a huge hole in the ground where the two towers once stood. A fence went all the way around the edge and people had turned the fence into a tribute. There were pictures, stories, ribbons, flowers, and teddy bears attached to the fence in memory of all those people who had died. There were also stands near the fence with people selling things (a little tacky, yes) but I bought the picture at the top there.
It's so crazy to believe ten years have passed since that day! I helped Matt in his primary class last Sunday and one of the boys said he was born 2 days after 9/11. So weird to me that these 10 year old kids knew the story of that day, but none of them were even alive for it!
Where were you that day? I hope each of you have written it down somewhere so you can remember all the details. And hopefully you wrote a little more than a desire to go to Homecoming.
1 comment:
I'm glad your teachers took time and stopped class so you could watch history in the making! I had a college history class that day and the professor continued on like it was any other day. I always thought it was interesting that as a history professor this wasn't something he felt was important for us to take a moment and mourn with the country!
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