I'll have a regular, goofy post up here in a bit- Play by Play, anyone?- but I'd be remiss if I didn't at least acknowledge today is 9/11. Disregarding all the politics surrounding it, I know that it has become one of those "where were you when?" days that are fortunately few and far between.
So, briefly, I'll just say that on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, I was in Music Theory class as a college freshman. The class started at 9:30 a.m., I believe, so when our teacher came in, he told us he heard something about a plane crashing in New York City... and then he went about the daily lesson about the treble clef or timbre or Timbaland's beat syncopation.
When we got out of class, people outside were either in hysterics or completely and utterly shocked. I remember stopping a guy and asking him what happened, and when he told me I immediately started calling around and eventually went to a friend's dorm- as a bunch of us did- and we huddled around watching the news and seeing freaking buildings crash to the ground.
What's especially sinister about that day for me is the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania was only a couple counties over from where my college is located, so there were many students from that area There was a perpetual fear that the next plane was going to land on us... because why not? Nothing else made sense that day, anyway.
If anything, that day reaffirmed my desire to be a journalist, because in the midst of the chaos, there were men and women trying to get the facts and report on mayhem, and for everyone huddled around their TV or radio or reading a paper the next day, that was their only connection to what would be one of the worst events to happen to the U.S., ever.
OK- I promised I'd keep it short, because this blog isn't really the right forum for this stuff, but I just wanted to offer my perspective. Where were you on that day? And if you don't live in this country, what did other countries think of all this?
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4 comments:
I was walking out of my Old English class in Eastham and one of the other students dad's said a plane had crashed in NYC. I thought, "That's too bad" and came home to my sister crying and praying and the radio on reporting over and over what happened/was happening.
We didn't have cable at the time, so I didn't see the images until I read the paper the next morning.
My oldest friend lived in Jersey at the time and, 'though she was quite some distance from the city, could see the smoke billowing up to a week after the planes hit.
The husband of one of the families in my church was a United pilot at the time and by some schedule fluke, was not flying the plane that crashed into the WTC.
Somber moment indeed.
omg i was in a music theory class too!
I was simply horrified and remember thinking of my parents who were at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN at the time. (I'm sure you've heard of it, as it's one of the best medical facilities in the world.) Because the information was still coming in I was concerned Mayo could be a potential target. It brought everything really close to home.
I've made an entire post about this on my blog but i think Australians had a kind of mixed reaction to begin with. I was in tears over my breakfast and on edge at school all day; one of my teahcers was all non-chalant, saying " It didnt happen here - who cares ? Nothing to worry about ".
Kind of the understatement of the century if you ask me....
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