My 9.11.01 Story
I am so emotional this year in remembering September 11, 2001. My experience now seems so trivial in the light of how many lives were lost and others who were devastated by the loss of loved ones and friends.
But ten years ago today it wasn’t trivial. Not at all.
I was a freshman college student four hundred miles from home. I worked as a first grade teacher’s aide making copies, doing graphics work, creating bulletin boards, cutting, laminating, organizing etc.
I will never forget the class being out at recess and my boss stopping by as I filed take-home papers for the kids. She asked me if I had heard that a tower at the World Trade Center had been hit by a plane in New York City. Living in a bubble and not having a cell phone then, I hadn’t a clue.
My heart stopped. This couldn’t be true, could it?
My thought in that moment was that I might not see my family again. I was terrified…really, really terrified.
I walked into the teachers’ lounge just as the second plane hit. I was still watching when the towers fell.
Looking back now, I don’t think I realized just how devastating 9/11 was. Watching documentaries leading up to today, I’m just blown away, touched and heartbroken all over again.
So yes, my 9.11 story is trivial. It is small and insignificant.
Yet my heart grieves. I grieve for those who were lost – heroes. I grieve for those who lost their precious family members – heroes as well. My heart grieves for our country.
And still…
I am proud to be an American.
And I will never, ever forget.
Where were you when you heard the 9.11.01 news?
XOXO
I relived it all over again this weekend. Listening to documentaries and seeing all the images. It tears your heart open again. I still get a little nervous when I hear a very low flying plane, it brings back that day. Beautifully written post.
I can still remember 9/11 and what was happening in my life like it was yesterday. I lived in CA at the time and was awoken with a call from my Nana. She was talking so fast “Are you up? What are are you doing? Go turn on the T.V. Go get your mother.” I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. At first I don’t think I even quite realized what it was, but it started sinking in fast. I couldn’t concentrate on anything that day. School was definitely out. I received a quick phone call from my then Marine boyfriend who was stationed in Japan. A very emotional phone call, but short and quick, just long enough to say he was o.k. I was scared for all of us. I didn’t know what was coming next and I was worried. It seemed like the week following was lived in a blur. And that is what I remember of 9/11.
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I was driving into the campus of the college where I still teach, listening to NPR. The first plane crash was being discussed as maybe pilot error, but as I pulled into the parking lot, the second plane hit. I rushed to my office and listened until I had to go to class, stunned and horrified. I took my radio to class, and we listened there.
I ended up throwing out my plans for the semester, and my classes and I built a new curriculum together, centered on what the students wanted to learn and write about relating to 9-11. We studied Islam, terrorism, national I.D. cards, the military, NYC, PA, the Pentagon…you name it.
Many of my colleagues taught that day as if nothing had happened, and I respect their choice to strive for some sense of normal in the face of such horror. But I just couldn’t.
P.S. I like this post a lot. Your feelings weren’t trivial then, and they aren’t now. Thank you for sharing them. (I found you from Lettered Cottage)
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I remember 9/11 like it was yesterday: my first baby has just turned 1 a few weeks before, I had kissed hubby goodbye for his day at work and I say down with her on the floor turned on the tv to check the weather for the day. I turned it on as the first plane hit. Stunned, then the second: Speechless, then the pentagon (i grew up military and was always told nothing could get into the pentagon) I knew we were at War from this day on Scared, Stunned, Speechless and Sad
the sad thing is babies born from even year 2000 have never known America with out terror attacks, with out being in a war.
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Physics class. Word got to our class and our teacher tried to put the news on. His TV wasn’t working so he said we could all hear about it on the evening news – I don’ think he quite grasped what was going on. Most of his class realized it was a BIG thing going on and we left the room to head to the TVs in the rotunda of our high school.
It was a hard day. Family in NYC was impossible to get ahold of but we eventually heard everything was ok a few days later. It’s hard to not tear up on this day. Events ten years ago shook our nation to the core and, for me, it is impossible to forget.
Thank you for sharing, my 9/11 started with attending a short ceremony since my then boyfriend (now husband) was awarded a rank at work – was a happy day till we heard the news and then the good mood faded and all became really blurry 🙁
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I remember 9/11 vividly and in slow motion … I was pregnant with my 5th child and very ill had caught the flu , so I had been on doctor ordered bed rest … I was sleeping when my now ex husband came running into the house yelling new york was under attack, we turned on the tv and sat watching in horror as the other plane hit and cried for hours while watching heroic ppl trying to save lives , I still tear up at the thought … little was I to know my husband aunt was killed on that day along with my best friends uncle and cousins , such a tragedy that will never be forgotten … so no it isn’t trivial your thoughts and feelings for everyone in the world remembers that day like it was yesterday .. god bless america.
I was taking my daughter to school and then heading to work, where we completely forgot about billable hours and sat glued to the conference room TV in complete, stunned silence. Today, I had planned to blog about what that day was like and what I remembered of it, but I spent today at a Healing Field – a ski hill covered with flags, each displaying the story of the 9/11 victim it represented – and knew I had to cover some of their stories instead: http://twelvehats.blogspot.com/2011/09/healing-field.html
Like it or not, our world was changed forever that day. I still cannot comprehend what it must have felt like for the people of New York, the Pentagon and Shanksville PA. Watching the tv specials and interviews, my heart breaks all over again. Praying for healing for all of the families and thanking God for America and all she stands for.
oh, no. There is nothing trivial about it. I also wrote about 9/11 yesterday. It begs to be talked about and processed.
hugs.
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I feel just the same. It’s so incredibly heartbreaking. The way it felt, the way it still feels. But in comparison to those directly affected by the tragedy of that day, it seems so trivial. I totally understand. I too, have been so emotional watching everything. What officially broke me was the first child to name their father, whom they never met because they were a baby inside their mommy’s tummy. THAT broke me. This is beautifully written, Myra.
I was in the 8th Grade…Mr. Mitchell’s Technology Class…I will never forget it.
We were in between classes when the second plane hit. When we walked into his classroom and got settled in, he told us that “The United States is under attack.” I thought that he was kidding. I remember watching the t.v. the rest of the day. I remember praying so hard for the people and the families! It’s something I will never ever forget!