P.75 9/11/09
In honor and remembrance of this day, 9/11, eight years ago, I am having a special post. We all remember where we were and what we were doing when we found out about the terrible terrorist attacks on our country to the World Trade Center, The Pentagon, and in rural Pennsylvania. We were all effected one way or another. We all came together.
I remember that the night of the attacks, I stayed up very late watching the news reports on the television. For some sick reason, I couldn’t get enough, and yet I just wanted to tear myself away from the TV. I’m honestly not a very emotional person. At least I didn’t use to be. I think maybe that night of 9/11 TV news overload changed me though. That night, with my eyes glued to the TV, I was overcome with emotion and broke into quiet tears. I kept watching accounts from friends and family of those who died. The Pentagon is basically in my back yard. Thankfully, I didn’t know anyone who died from any of the attacks, but I could imagine if I had. My heart hurt. I felt like I couldn’t do anything to help.
And then I received a very disturbing phone call at my family’s house. It was so weird. The phone rang. It was a wrong number. (We had just moved to our house that summer and had been receiving a lot of wrong number phone calls, so it didn’t seem out of the ordinary.) But the caller was worried. I don’t quite remember the conversation, but it was something like the man I was talking to was looking for (I think) his wife who didn’t come home, or was at the airport or something. It was really upsetting. I couldn’t provide any information other than that he had the wrong phone number.
Somehow I managed to fall asleep. I also felt somewhat artificial for feeling so hurt when I wasn’t actually affected first or second-hand. But I didn’t care, since everyone was upset. On a more personal level, I had always wanted to go to the Twin Towers, since they were a famous architectural sight. I was upset about the target because now I would never get to go to the well known Twin Towers.
Because of the events that happened eight years ago today, our world has greatly changed. We now refer to living in our times as a “Post 9-11 time.” Our security not only in airports but in museums, buildings, and other modes of transportation have been heightened. At my job at the FAA, we are not allowed to use photos of planes if the plane is pointed downward. (Kind of silly, because planes have to land at some point, but even so.) And those are just a few examples.
I will always remember that day and that night…
CAPSLove 