I got the idea for this post from
Trisha.
I can remember all the details from my day on 9/11. I know that someday my kids will come home from school and ask me about it, about my feelings, my fears. Just as I remember asking my parents about where they were, what the reaction was, when JFK was assassinated.
I had a 7:20 math class, and I was listening to the radio on my way in. They were saying that a plane had flown into one of the twin towers, but no one knew why or what had happened. What? How does a pilot do that? Was the plane crashing anyways and it accidentally hit the building? Not once was my thought that someone had done it on purpose. Who would do something like that? I asked my peers if they had heard the news, but only a couple had, and they were as bewildered as I was.
I went home to pick up Tony because we were meeting my dad in Alamogordo to trade cars. Before we left we went over to Tony's parents house, where Deb and Dan were watching the news. By this time a second plane had hit the other building, and both buildings had collapsed, everyone knew this was no accident.
Tony and I were in shock driving to meet my dad. I don't think we even really spoke, just listened to the news. We met my dad and just solemnly spoke about what had happened. Why had this happened? We had to go back to Cruces, as we both had classes that afternoon. I felt so far removed from everything, but heartbroken that someone had created so much pain and loss. All those families that had lost someone they loved, in such an act of violence, it was inconceivable. Those rescuers were trying to save people, and so many lost their lives too.
I remember that classes had optional attendance for the rest of the day, but they encouraged students to go to class, talk about what had happened. Everyone sat in class with lumps in their throat, or weeping openly. Weeping for people we didn't know, for the lives of people far removed from our little New Mexico town. Because this affected all of us, it reached out and gripped all Americans and brought us to our knees. How dare these people, these terrorists, think they can come onto our soil and take away so much. I was so angry and also afraid. What's next? White Sands Missile Range is just over the Oregon Mountains from Las Cruces. What if they wanted to hit that too?
I am choked up now remembering that day. It changed all of us forever, the way we look at the world and the way we look at our own country, with pride abounding. We are Americans, we knew we could pull together, aid one another, and build back up some of what we had lost. Because that is what the people in this great country do, we join together and we rebuild. We find strength within us that we didn't even know existed.
