It’s been six years since the fall of the Trade Center Towers. That’s over half a decade, yet it feels as though it happened yesterday. Where were you on the morning of September 11, 2001?
I awoke around 6am from a morning News telecast covering the events of the first plane that crashed into the North Tower. Awestruck and intrigued my eyes were glued to the TV. As the news woman described the damages on screen the second plane is seen crashing into the South Tower. The confused news woman stopped dead in her tracks and took a deep gasp and cupping her hands over her mouth, “Oh my…” she uttered. We just witnessed one of the most horrific events on live television.
I spent too much time watching the TV and it made me late. I hopped on my motorcycle and rode to my morning Chemistry lab class. Everyone in class was talking about it. I didn’t realize the extent of the situation when a fellow student said that the plane crashes were caused by terrorists. My professor was in and out of class every few minutes checking for updates from the classroom next door. We all finished our lab assignments as quickly as we could. When the lab class was over I ran over down the hall to my next class. The room was packed with students from the previous class. Their professor had setup the projector screen to CNN. Over 200 students packed into this lecture hall watching the minute by minute events until my professor turned off the projector and kicked everyone out that were not in her class. My professor lectured the entire period without being phased by what was happening. The class ended and some of the students ask to have the projector be turned on but the professor refused. I took off and hopped on my motorcycle and headed home.
When I got home I saw several instant messages from several friends asking me if I knew what was happening. Another friend called and said our School Campus just got shut down. I turned on the TV and found out the towers had collapse. For a split second all these events felt surreal. It felt like Armageddon. The end of the world.
When I think of September 11th, I don’t think of the day that terrorists attacked us, but the day we (US) changed. For the better? I’m not sure, but life now can never be the same.