I woke up and made breakfast just like any other day. I
think somewhere between brushing my teeth and getting my backpack all situated
for the day my dad or grandpa said something about a plane flying into a
building, but that was it, no specifics. I walked to school and when I got
there a bunch more people were talking about this building and a plane and
that’s when I started getting more information; it was a passenger plane and it
flew into one of the World Trade Center buildings. That didn’t make sense, why
would a plane fly into a building? Was the navigation messed up? Did someone
hijack it and not know how to fly it? In first period, we just had the TV on
and we watched the video of the second plane actually hitting the second tower.
Nobody had all the information yet; every ten minutes, the stories evolved and
shifted. After first period our Principal came on the school intercom and
basically said if anyone wanted or needed to leave that could and should. I
remember a few kids were joking around that it would be a free day off and
considered leaving. I even considered it for a second because if we weren’t
going to get any school work done, then I could just go watch TV at home and
stay up on the story. The rest of the day is a blur of information, pictures,
girls crying in class and in between classes. At some point early on in the
morning the towers came down. I remember not really knowing what to think. I
was trying to think if I might know anyone in New York; would my uncle have
been there visiting randomly from his home in Connecticut? Should I call him?
I
think for that whole first day the gravity of the situation didn’t fully sink
into my brain or my heart. Over the course of the next couple days and weeks
more information became available and everyone started forming their opinions.
I remember that planes were grounded and somehow a few celebrities who were in
other countries made the news because they still got to fly home or something
like that. Audio of people calling their loved-ones from the planes; video of
people jumping from the buildings; information about the plane/missile that hit
the Pentagon all became topics of conversation and were immediately recognized
by everyone. Obviously the conspiracy talk started and all sorts of stories
started coming to the surface and then everyone started forming their opinions
about all of that. That’s super not the point and I’m not going to get into it.
I still see bumper stickers or decals on cars that say
‘Never Forget’ and have 9/11 on them or FDNY or some combination of the two
sentiments. There are definitely days where I’m like, ‘no duh, dude, of course
we won’t forget. How could we?’ But I think most days we do forget that this
tragedy happened, and we forget that for a brief moment human beings were all
on the same side (not all, but most). We forget shit if it happened two weeks
ago, let alone 13 years. I don’t remember everything about that day, but I
remember that it was cloudy and it was starting to feel like winter and it was
my senior year in high school. I remember watching that second plane hit the
tower. I remember briefly thinking that I should feel something more and I was almost
angry at movies for desensitizing me, because the plane didn’t make an
appropriately sized explosion. I remember watching the buildings come
down and I remember feeling empty and confused and overwhelmed and angry all at
once. I also felt, honestly for the first time, and maybe the only time, a
sense of Patriotism. This is my country and we were attacked and that’s some
bullshit and we should do something about it…….I definitely don’t remember 9/11
everyday, but I sure as hell will never forget it either.
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