Today is the 10th Anniversary of a defining moment of our country, and possibly the defining moment of my generation. Our entire world changed on this day, and 10 years later, we still feel the ripples of effects from it. I don’t need to list out these effects, you feel them too.
This is my story from that day. I hope you will share yours too.
When the first plane struck the towers, I am pretty sure I was in the shower, groggy, preparing for my physics class at York College of Pennsylvania. Our professor, Dr. Khnana, had one rule. If you wanted an A, you had to attend every class. If you were sick, sit in the back. Your only excuse for missing class was the day after your 21st birthday. I kid you not. It was a 9:30 am class.
After my shower and throwing on a pair of jeans, American Eagle girl cut t-shirt, a pair of Doc Maertens, I grabbed my bag and was off to class. My roommate came running out of her room on the phone and turned the TV on. She looked a little upset.
I saw the tower smoking, and felt my first emotion of the day. Confusion.
How does a tower catch on fire like that? What do they mean a plane? That can’t be right, what pilot is that stupid?
Just before I left for class, the news of the second plane hitting the second tower started trickling in. I had to go, you know the rules… I wanted my A.
I get to class at the last possible second to be on time and tell my friends about what I’d see. Two planes had slammed into the towers. Speaking those words made me feel my second emotion of the day: Shock. Now we know this on purpose. This doesn’t happen twice within 20 minutes by happen chance. No, the pilot really wasn’t that stupid.
Dr. Khanna had no idea what was going on and he started teaching. This being long before the day of smartphones, we were disconnected. He gave us a physics problem to solve, probably something involving a car, and walked out of the room for coffee. He came back a few minutes later and told us in his very thick Indian accent, “Do you know what is happening?”
He kept giving us problems and leaving to go watch the TV in the hallway. He’d give us an update, another problem, and walk out again. Now I was starting to feel scared. I left that class and went to my next, still not really sure how to handle the day. My second class was cellular and molecular biology. My professor who was also my mentor, Dr. Kaltreider, had the TV on. We mostly watched TV, talked, and did a 15 minute lecture while the TV was on. I am sure that I absorbed nothing.
My third class I was actually anxious to get to, Topics in Arson and Bomb investigation. I took the class as part of my failed minor (I was unable to finish due to class conflicts with my major), Criminalistics. In that class, the girl behind me’s father worked at the Pentagon. Thankfully, he was OK. We talked a bit about the events and forgot about lecture entirely. The college was closed an hour later.
After the day of classes, I returned home to watch TV. For hours. We watched the news tickers that seemed to be born that day and have not left us since. It was then I felt my next emotion of the day, extreme sadness. Sadness for our country, sadness for the men and women on those planes and in the buildings.
There was a candlelight vigil on campus that night, I did not attend, which I regret to this day. I was not ready to face the tragedy with others. I could barely face it with my roommates.
That night, some friends of mine were inspired to create something amazing to show unity on campus. They gathered a very large tarp along with red, white, and blue paste. Together, we created a huge American flag, which the campus was invited to sign. The banner was hung around the outside of the MAC building, which hung there for a month.
I remember every raw emotion I felt that day. The fear was underlying the entire time. The uncertainty: what happens now? who did this? are my aunt and uncle ok (they lived in NYC at the time, and were thankfully safe)?
Today is hard. I have cried, and will continue to do so. Every time I watch the footage, hear the fear, see the tension.
This post has no pictures. You don’t need to be reminded of what that day looked like. If you’re like me, it is etched into your brain.
September 11th, 2001. Never Forget.
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