September 11, 2011

• My 9-11

  My 9-11 story isn’t interesting at all. I was 15; a sophomore in high school. My third period class (Phys. Ed.) was about to get out. Across from the gym was the cafeteria, which at the time was holding a study hall period. My class was standing at the door, waiting for the bell to ring, when those in the study hall were doing the same. The difference was, while we were waiting silently (as silently as high schoolers can, anyway), the study hall students were making a lot of noise. One of the students shouted across the hall, “What’s going on?” I didn’t hear the response, but someone in our class relayed the message he received: Someone flew a plane into the Capitol building.

  Of course, the day went on. Every classroom at Celina High School had a TV. Every TV in the building was on. We were all watching the news to see what was going on. Of course, I eventually caught on that the Capitol building wasn’t hit, but it was believed to be a target. The day continued. We all went home that day and watched more TV. We kept our eyes glued, seeing these planes with passengers fly into the twin towers… Watching the towers burn… Seeing people jump out of the buildings… Seeing the buildings collapse… Seeing people running in the streets in fear… We couldn’t keep our eyes off the mess. And we watched it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over… as if we couldn’t believe what we were witnessing…

  And it’s still true today… For some reason, we can’t believe that something like this could happen to the US. Some still refuse to believe it… and get themselves looped into senseless conspiracy theories… This way of thinking that says “This is something so evil, it had to have come from ourselves.” And in a sense, it did…. but not in the same sense that it was our government behind all this mess…. but more like the events leading to that terrible date.

  Regardless of where this came from, it was a life-transforming day… but life still goes on… We have all been changed… some for the better, some for the worse.

  In the following months from that day, the US was the strongest it could ever be. No one used the attacks for political gain. We had a sense of brotherhood about us. We were united, as our name suggests. Today, who can see that? As changed as we’ve become, we’ve still gained nothing. That’s from my perspective anyway. It’s sad that it takes something as devastating as 3,000 deaths to bring us all together.

   

  • 8:16 pm
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