I’ll never forget. It was about 10:20 am or so, I was in sociology class with Mr. Walseth. He ended our days lesson in the way he always did: turning the tv on to catch the end of Family Feud before the bell rings.
This day, however, we saw the image of smoke coming from one of the twin towers, and the ticker going below informing us that a plane had crashed into it. At first, it was a mixture of laughter. “What a dumbass…” someone quipped, referring to the pilot whom we took to have either erred, been drunk, or who only knows at that point.
With all of our eyes glued to this tv screen, the second plane hit. At first, many thought it to be a replay of the event, until we saw two clear lines of smoke now, and the reporter clearly showing signs of shock as to what just happened.
At this point, the mocking of this apparent idiot pilot immediately stopped; silence took hold of the room.
Watching on this tv, the bell finally rang, but most of us somewhat dismissed it. Keeping watch, we heard screams emitting from the tv as a cloud of smoke formed around one of the towers as it suddenly collapsed. There was a big flash of light seeming to come from the ground up of this infrastructure, and the first tower collapsed.
Not caring about the repercussions for voicing this, I said “Holy shit…!” Voices started filling the room again with the sight, as so many questions filled our heads and rolled off our tongues. Once that second plane hit, we knew something was gravely wrong.
Filing out of our classrooms, the students in the hallways had a different demeanor to them. We stopped to chat, concerned looks everywhere my eyes could see. As for me, all I could do was shake my head, as nobody had answers as to what was happening yet.
People kept voicing to one another, “Did you hear? Did you hear?!” In fact, it seemed nothing else was being talked about.
The entire time I briskly paced myself towards the basement from the red carpeted area, the chorus of the song by R.E.M. kept playing in my head; “It’s the end of the world as we know it, It’s the end of the world as we know it…”. As soon as I saw my best friend since age 3, Aaron Larson, en route to gym class, I sang that chorus, getting a laugh out of him in the process, along with a head nod of agreement.
The basement hallway was deserted, I normally could hear my footsteps echoing throughout this corridor. Normally a large student heading to shop class had his route timed to mine, it seemed, the sweeping sound of the soles of his shoes to the tile floor would echo in such a way that was unmistakable. I had a little game I played: get in the locker room before I actually saw him round the corner. That way, I knew I was making good time.
Not today, however. No sound of sweeping shoes, rather for the first time, I noticed the overhead speakers in the school was transmitting the broadcast. Apparently everyone was aware. At this time, as I was about to head into the locker room, I saw a classmate: one I didn’t particularly like, heading to the locker room too.
Normally, my skin would crawl from this douchebag, but I had other worries. I spoke up to him. “You heard about the tower collapsing?!?”
He looked at me, not with the usual conceit or arrogant posturing he normally conveyed, but this time, just shook his head, looking towards the locker room door listlessly. It was then that I first heard that tower number 2 had collapsed. He must’ve heard it too for the first time, as this time, anger spewed from his lips in the form of “What the fuck?!?!”
What the fuck. Yeah. I understood.
As more and more details poured in, words like terrorism were thrown around. Gone was the notion of pilot error, in the instance that second plane hit. For the first time, I felt vulnerable. It was different from getting in a fight with someone. It was different than walking down a street and getting assaulted by a stranger. These people were simply going through the motions of their day, when people they’ve never seen, never interacted with directly, took something away from them…
We felt insecure. I had the paradigm of United States superiority in practically everything pounded into my publicly educated brain from the start. We were indomitable…unbreakable, unshakeable.
I remember being filled with feelings of not understanding what was going on. A strange numbness filled me at first, until feelings of anger flooded my veins at the sight of President Bush addressing the nation in response to this act of terror against us. As he kept speaking, and I saw the anger in him matching my own, I was filled with thoughts and feelings of getting back at these terrorists. Thoughts of joining the armed forces, purely out of anger, filled my mind.
The rest of the day was a blur. Nobody seemed to know what to say about the situation. I remember going home, laying down in my bed right after school, and praying.
I prayed that God would be with the families and loved ones of those whose lives were taken, and he’d look after those working tirelessly in rescue efforts and damage control, keeping them safe and vital. I also prayed for the terrorists responsible: that they would open their eyes and see what they had done…perhaps their souls could yet be saved. I left that all in God’s hands.
I will never forget.