I Remember…. September 11, 2001

With today’s date, I just couldn’t go through the day without mentioning the importance, or taking time to remember all of those who lost their life that day.  Sometimes it is still hard to wrap my head around it.  Why did all those innocent people have to die?  

I still remember September 11, 2001.  I was just a freshman, and school had only been in session a few weeks.   I crawled about of bed half asleep, and I remember that I just couldn’t seem to wake up.  Quick shower and coffee didn’t help.  I trudged upstairs to get my friend so we could walk to class together.  I remember her yelling “They’re bombing us!”.  WHAT?  I couldn’t believe it.  We watched a few minutes of the news, headed towards school, and went to our separate classes.

SILENCE.  There were roughly 17 students in my Mass Comm class, and no one was talking.  No one could say anything.  The professor walked in and asked if anyone needed to call family.  We did have one student from NYC, who the professor allowed to leave to make calls.  For the record, his family was safe. 

“We can’t just sit here.  Let’s go to the pub”, our professor said.  Our school had a pub on campus with a big screen TV.  The whole class headed on over.  The pub only had a handful of other students and faculty glued on the TV.  We pushed tables together and watched.  No one got food nor drinks.  We were just glued to the screen.  Still silence.  Only the news anchor spoke.

Then the unthinkable happened.  We watched what we thought was a replay of the plane hitting the tower.  No, it wasn’t.  It was a second plane hitting the second tower.  Everyone gasped and you could see people starting to tear up.  The anchor himself was speechless.  We had just witnessed live feed of the second attack.  I can’t tell you how long we all stayed, but no one bothered to watch the clock and head to their next class.  Then we watched the towers collapse.  I never thought it my life I would ever witness something like this.  

The rest of the day was spent watching TV, watching the news, not that anything else was on.  Every channel was covering the attacks.  No MTV, no Comedy Central, no Bravo.  All stations turned to coverage.  It stayed like that for quite some time.

This is a day I’ll never forget.  Never ever.  I’ll always remember that day and the lives lost, the brave first responders, and the country coming together.