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Ten Years Ago
14 years ago
General
Where were you?
This isn’t about politics. This isn’t about war. This is about memory. Take yourself back to that day and remember.
--
Ten years ago today, I was a freshman in high school. My first class on Tuesdays was gym class, 8:30 to 10:00. We were outside running the mile when we heard a heavy thudding boom, like a heavy boulder dropping onto hard-packed ground, a sound with weight. A short while later, a plume of white smoke could be seen rising to the northeast. I theorized it was some kind of gas explosion; I resolved to watch the news later to see if they mentioned it.
It wasn’t until later that we realized that what we had heard and seen was the result of Flight 77 hitting the Pentagon, six miles away.
--
Late in the evening of that day, I sat down at the computer and wrote down what I had experienced, composing my thoughts in an e-mail to my cousin. The following passages were written by a fourteen-year-old me on Tuesday, September 11, 2001.
“[The gym teacher] told us that two planes had crashed into the World Trade Center and that the Pentagon had been evacuated as a precaution, and that any students who had parents who worked at the Pentagon could go to the office and call them.
“When I went inside to the locker room to take off my gym uniform, it was a full blown rumor mill. They were saying that the World Trade Center had been attacked and that the Pentagon and the State Department had been bombed.
“As I was walking to my next class (Computer Science), I caught snippets of news and video through open classroom doors where they were watching CNN. The videos only showed one of the towers, and I assumed that the other one was behind it. When I got to CS, [the teacher] left the TV on for a few minutes and I learned that one of the twin towers had in fact collapsed.
“We had Computer Science in the computer lab [across the hall], where there was no television, but the students could choose to stay behind and watch CNN if they wanted to. [My partner and I finished early] and returned to the classroom to watch CNN, where I learned that the other tower had collapsed. I don’t remember when I first heard about the attack on the Pentagon, but it was sometime before we went to the computer lab.
“Towards the end of the day, the principal … got on the P.A. system and gave us the homework assignment to go home and give our parents a hug.”
“I watched NBC from [when I got home] about five all the way until 8, when mom and I finished dinner. After dinner, I did the homework [the principal] assigned. Dad is in Paris on business and was scheduled to fly home tomorrow, but he called and said that he had been informed that he would not be able to return until at least Friday.”
“The full impact of what has happened today is incomprehensible and it has yet to fully hit me. All day long I’ve been rocking between shock and disbelief. The scenes they keep showing on TV are like something out of a movie like Independence Day or Armageddon, and yet I know that they are showing actual video.”
“It was, and still is, unthinkable that such a well coordinated attack could be carried out so seemingly flawlessly without us having any forewarning. This attack was unannounced, unsolicited, unwarranted, and undeserved.”
“The attack brought more than just buildings, planes, and lives crashing to the ground today, it has also brought with it our sense of security as Americans, the sense that we are invincible and immune to any attack. But the American spirit still refuses to be crushed. Earlier this evening there was a speech by, I think, the Attorney General, or someone like that, on the steps of the Capitol. Obviously that part did not stick in my mind, but afterwards many members of the House, Republicans and Democrats, all races, sang ‘God Bless America.’ We will persevere, and we will survive.”
--
In my school, the TVs stayed on in many classrooms. Everyone wanted to know what was going on.
My dad was in Paris on business; he eventually got home during the weekend. My uncle was in the air, on a cross-country flight from Baltimore to Los Angeles and then Hawaii. When air traffic was grounded, his flight landed in Kansas City; Hawaii it wasn’t.
A student in my class had a father on Flight 77. A teacher at my school had a brother in the World Trade Center.
For me, this day isn’t about politics. This isn’t about war. This is about remembering. This is about what was lost that day.
September 11, 2001, is a day I can never forget. Every year, I try to take time to just sit and remember what that day was like. What happened, and how it felt.
On a clear September day, 19 men got on board four planes and created hell on earth. They proved that America was vulnerable, a truth no one wanted to believe. The events of that day got to me in a way that few things ever have.
This isn’t about politics. This isn’t about war. This is about memory. Take yourself back to that day and remember.
--
Ten years ago today, I was a freshman in high school. My first class on Tuesdays was gym class, 8:30 to 10:00. We were outside running the mile when we heard a heavy thudding boom, like a heavy boulder dropping onto hard-packed ground, a sound with weight. A short while later, a plume of white smoke could be seen rising to the northeast. I theorized it was some kind of gas explosion; I resolved to watch the news later to see if they mentioned it.
It wasn’t until later that we realized that what we had heard and seen was the result of Flight 77 hitting the Pentagon, six miles away.
--
Late in the evening of that day, I sat down at the computer and wrote down what I had experienced, composing my thoughts in an e-mail to my cousin. The following passages were written by a fourteen-year-old me on Tuesday, September 11, 2001.
“[The gym teacher] told us that two planes had crashed into the World Trade Center and that the Pentagon had been evacuated as a precaution, and that any students who had parents who worked at the Pentagon could go to the office and call them.
“When I went inside to the locker room to take off my gym uniform, it was a full blown rumor mill. They were saying that the World Trade Center had been attacked and that the Pentagon and the State Department had been bombed.
“As I was walking to my next class (Computer Science), I caught snippets of news and video through open classroom doors where they were watching CNN. The videos only showed one of the towers, and I assumed that the other one was behind it. When I got to CS, [the teacher] left the TV on for a few minutes and I learned that one of the twin towers had in fact collapsed.
“We had Computer Science in the computer lab [across the hall], where there was no television, but the students could choose to stay behind and watch CNN if they wanted to. [My partner and I finished early] and returned to the classroom to watch CNN, where I learned that the other tower had collapsed. I don’t remember when I first heard about the attack on the Pentagon, but it was sometime before we went to the computer lab.
“Towards the end of the day, the principal … got on the P.A. system and gave us the homework assignment to go home and give our parents a hug.”
“I watched NBC from [when I got home] about five all the way until 8, when mom and I finished dinner. After dinner, I did the homework [the principal] assigned. Dad is in Paris on business and was scheduled to fly home tomorrow, but he called and said that he had been informed that he would not be able to return until at least Friday.”
“The full impact of what has happened today is incomprehensible and it has yet to fully hit me. All day long I’ve been rocking between shock and disbelief. The scenes they keep showing on TV are like something out of a movie like Independence Day or Armageddon, and yet I know that they are showing actual video.”
“It was, and still is, unthinkable that such a well coordinated attack could be carried out so seemingly flawlessly without us having any forewarning. This attack was unannounced, unsolicited, unwarranted, and undeserved.”
“The attack brought more than just buildings, planes, and lives crashing to the ground today, it has also brought with it our sense of security as Americans, the sense that we are invincible and immune to any attack. But the American spirit still refuses to be crushed. Earlier this evening there was a speech by, I think, the Attorney General, or someone like that, on the steps of the Capitol. Obviously that part did not stick in my mind, but afterwards many members of the House, Republicans and Democrats, all races, sang ‘God Bless America.’ We will persevere, and we will survive.”
--
In my school, the TVs stayed on in many classrooms. Everyone wanted to know what was going on.
My dad was in Paris on business; he eventually got home during the weekend. My uncle was in the air, on a cross-country flight from Baltimore to Los Angeles and then Hawaii. When air traffic was grounded, his flight landed in Kansas City; Hawaii it wasn’t.
A student in my class had a father on Flight 77. A teacher at my school had a brother in the World Trade Center.
For me, this day isn’t about politics. This isn’t about war. This is about remembering. This is about what was lost that day.
September 11, 2001, is a day I can never forget. Every year, I try to take time to just sit and remember what that day was like. What happened, and how it felt.
On a clear September day, 19 men got on board four planes and created hell on earth. They proved that America was vulnerable, a truth no one wanted to believe. The events of that day got to me in a way that few things ever have.
thelastgasp
~thelastgasp
Man that ones a lot harsher than mine. I was getting ready for college as a freshman, just had an evening Japanese class. Forgot who turned on the tv, but I seem.to.recall thinking 'holy shit, it looks like a bad jerry bruckheimer film'. I think I tried to disbelieve, then the second tower fell. Everyone and everything went weird. School was cancelled. No it wasn't. Yes it was. No it wasn't, but sensei wasn't going to.be in anyways, take it off. The crazy part for me was that there were two more as well. I know I pretty much stayed at home with family, perhaps cynically glad we lived in the middle of nowhere across the country. We didn't know anyone there. So it was weird, like a phantom issue for us, never seeming fully real.
