9-11

I spoke with my students today about 9-11. They had no idea. They were amazed by what I had to say. I told them my story- how I felt that day, how scary it was, how the events unfolded. I told them only an overview fit for the first grade impressionable minds in front of me, but there's so much more to the story..

I was a college student, driving in my little car to Alva. I heard on the radio that something was going on but I didn't pay much attention because I had a lot on my mind. I had exams coming up, projects due, papers to write.. then Michael called. He said that a plane had crashed into some tower or something. He was incredulous but I didn't get it. I turned up the radio when I got off the phone with him and the guy said he was reporting from the pentagon. There was a loud noise & then they didn't know what was going on. By the time I made it to campus I was realizing that things were weird. People were looking around and talking excitedly as they walked up to the wellness center doors. I went in to my School & Community Health class and sat down listening to all the crazy conversations going on. Coach Batisti came in and said "I don't know what you all are doing, but I'm watching the news to see what's going on!" We all rushed out & squeezed around the small TVs above the treadmills. After awhile I left & went to the mass comm lounge where I found my comrads watching TV anxiously. As I watched the second plane crash into the second tower it started sinking in. It was all so unbelievable. We were under attack!?! As journalists we all started taking notes and discussing how the news crews were handling this major story. We had each local station going on all the various TVs around there and CNN and FOX News on the ones in the studio. We went back & forth between them and marveled at the misinformation reported before facts were confirmed and how much the details varied depending on which channel you were watching. "Who really knows what's going on?" we thought.
As I drove home that afternoon I saw cars crammed into gas stations, the lines backing out all the way to blocking the highways. People were in a complete panic. I arrived home at my small apartment & Michael and I compared stories, thoughts & ideas. We talked about how scary a world it is that we are bringing a child into. I was pregnant with Princess. She was due in January and I couldn't help but wonder how I would ever explain this day to her and how much it meant to America.
Even now I don't know how to describe the magnitude of lives lost on that day or the impact those events had on my life. Things had changed. They would never be the same. I truely believed that. Now, eight years later I am surprised how quickly we have moved on. How little it matters that thousands of Americans were killed by terroists in a free nation of liberty and justice. We just turned our heads, moved on with our trivial little social lives and looked away from the widows & families of the firefighters, police, rescue crews and employees of the World Trade Center. I'm sure they will never forget, so how can we, as a nation, ever forget their sacrifice.. or the sacrifice of the soldiers & their families ever since? The image most in my mind is not the plane hitting the tower, but the front page of the NY Times paper that had an actual body plumeting to the ground.. the hundreds of people who jumped out of the windows in a desperate last attempt of hope.. the firefighters pouring through rubbage looking for the lost people.. such a sad and heartbreaking moment in time for our country.. it's our generation's Pearl Harbor you know.. it is a lost & fallen world we live in for sure.