What Everyone Else is Doing: 9/11 Post
I usually balk at doing something that everyone else is doing, but here is my 9/11 blog post. You've probably read a billion of these sorts of recollections and are tired of them by now. I don't expect anyone that doesn't know me in person to read this whole thing. And I promise I won't be offended if you pass over "another one of those 9/11 blog posts." In case you, for some reason, want to read another one, here you go.
Have you ever talked to anyone who doesn't remember what they were doing that day? I find it quite interesting how you probably wouldn't be able to recall with clarity the events of 9/10/2001, but 9/11/2001 is ingrained in consciousness. That said, here is what was going on in my life.
It was my freshman year of college. Since it was a Tuesday, I think the only thing on my plate for the day was Calculus I recitation and history later at 3 or 4-ish. In the morning, I went to the registrar's office to see if I could drop my 2 credit history class (since I had found out that I might not need it) while still remaining a full time student (full-time is >= 12 credits, and dropping history would've dropped me to 11 credits). I think I was talking to a secretary who had a radio on, and I heard that someone had crashed a plane into the World Trade Center.
I never did drop that history class.
There are gaps in my memory between walking out of the registrar's office and then being glued to the TV all day. I have a mental image of walking past the football stadium in a dazed manner...I remember that upon reaching my floor, one of my neighbors asked if I'd heard that the Pentagon had been bombed. Although I don't recall for sure, I'd hope that at this point, I would've started to get suspicious that these weren't just unplanned, unfortunate accidents.As I mentioned before, I spent the rest of the day glued to the TV. Perhaps the first half of the day was spent in shock and denial. When I watched the towers collapse, I think I said aloud "This has got to be some sort of orchestrated stunt. These things do not happen in real life. They only happen in the movies. You've got to be kidding me." I waited for the news anchors to burst out laughing and say "Joke's on you!" but that never happened.
That night, I went to sleep declaring to myself that 9/11/2001 was the worst day in American history.
Feel free to post your recollections, if you wish. Do you know of anyone (besides young children) who doesn't remember their circumstances on that day?
Categories:
ruminations
I remember that I was in physics class, junior year of high school, when all of a sudden we were told to go to chapel. I heard bits and pieces of what happened, but mostly I was really confused. I didn't know how serious it was until I heard more people talking about it and then later when I read about it and watched the news.
This is the first remembrance I have read today. I was at home with the whole family. (It must have been my husband's day off.) He is a news junkie, so cable news was on when the first plane hit. Like most people, we thought, "What a horrible accident!" When the second one hit, we looked at each other and knew. I went into another room to do something when our oldest ran in and said, "The pentagon has been bombed!" I thought we were at the beginning of an all out war.
Wrote a response on my blog...