I will never forget what happened on this day 9 years ago. I still remember sights, smells, emotions as if they happened yesterday. In all truth I remember that day better than I can remember most of yesterday. I was not a person directly affected by the attack on September 11, 2001, but I am an American citizen, then a high school senior, that felt the impact of what had transpired. Today my husband, 9 years later, is overseas supporting the mission that I feel started earlier than that day.
It started like any other day for me. I woke up, got ready for school and headed out the door with my sister to make our morning stop at the grocery store for breakfast. As normal I searched the radio for sometime to listen to and was disappointed and annoyed that there was only talk radio on. I wanted to listen to music. I didn't even stop on a station long enough to listen to what their message was. As I parked and got out of the truck to head into the store I told my sister to find a CD to listen to. I now think this is funny because the distance that it took for us to get to school from the store wasn't even long enough for us to finish a song, but I didn't want to hear radio DJs talking. When I got back into the truck with our breakfast, my sister had located a CD and we were off. I think this is the only part of that morning that I don't remember as I have forgotten what song we were even listening to or even what the band's name was. Seeing as I was so adamant about listening to something else and the rest of that day was so clear it's funny to me that this part of the morning didn't have enough meaning to stick in my head. As my sister and I were very involved in choir and most of our friends were as well we met in front of the choir room in the mornings before classes began. My sister and I were the first to arrive and sat to eat. Not too long after our friends arrived with distraught looks on their faces. "Have you heard? Did you see?" "Heard what?" "Planes hit the Twin Towers in New York." "What? Are you kidding?" was the way the conversation proceeded. We hadn't even gotten the whole story from them when our coir director showed up and unlocked the door. We all ushered in and immediately turned on the TV. We didn't have to pick any station in particular because the coverage was already on every channel. We stood in silence watching the images on the screen for maybe 2 minutes before we witnessed the first tower crumble. It is a sight that I will never forget and I have seen many times since, but nothing compares to watching it live. It seemed like what you should have seen in a movie as special effects. I still have a hard time believing what I saw, but there it was. I barely recognized that many more people had filtered into the room with us and were watching in the same stunned silence.
As students and teachers we all had a responsibility, an obligation, to continue through our day though it was far from normal. Classes did not contain lessons. They were nearly silent as we continued to watch the coverage. If anyone spoke it was about the fact they knew someone in New York or they couldn't believe that something like this was happening. It seemed that we were all in shock. One teacher in particular had a very difficult time with this. She had family in New York and were waiting to hear anything from them about those who worked near the World Trade Center. She sat at her desk, eyes never leaving the screen. She was one of the most vibrant teachers I had ever had and it was heart breaking to see her so depressed and distraught.
The rest of the day was spent in a similar stunned silence by everyone that I came in contact with. Whether anyone was directly affected or not it still rocked the foundation of our sense of safety and we all waited for what was next. That evening I watched press conferences with the President and footage of the events of that morning and cried. I cried for the ones who were lost, the ones who lost family, friends, I cried for the country who was so unprepared and didn't know how to respond and I cried for me because I never in my life thought I would witness such a horrific tragedy and I was scared.
Again that day will live on in my mind, unfailing forever. I feel for my son who is watching me today getting teared up and not understanding why. I pray that never in his lifetime will he something so terrible. I hope we can all have a moment of prayer and remembrance for those affected by, directly or indirectly, the devastation of the attacks on September 11, 2001. WE WILL NOT FORGET!
