9/11 was one of those days that most of us will forever remember. Where you were, how you felt, etc. Just thought I would write down my experiences.
I was no where near lower Manhattan, Washington DC, or a field in Pennsylvania. I was falling asleep in my 7:00Am political geography class...wishing I had either not stayed up so late or just skipped. Anyway...When class got out I made my way through the TSC (Student center at USU) and noticed people huddled around the TVs. I didn't pay much attention until I got to my next destination, Old Main, for my Russian class. Every available TV was on the news. I was brought up to speed by everyone watching. We just stood there in shock. My teacher let us watch for a while and then said "we might as well conjugate some Russian verbs, there isn't a whole lot we can do". So conjugate some verbs, we did. Then I went to my next class, a history one, and we discussed the events of the morning in a little more depth, eventually moving on. My final class was a child development class. We were all waiting for class to start when the teacher walked in, a young Brazilian guy, and canceled class. He said " there are so many people suffering today, it seems pointless for us to try and focus on something that can be done another day. Go home and call your families or something like that". I thought, sweet, no class.
That day also happened to be the first day of my new job as a customer service rep at ICON health and fitness. Nothing had really sunk in as far as how this would impact so many lives. We were glued to our tvs for the next few days. We were moved, but still hadn't had our lives really affected. One day a couple of weeks later I was taking a call at work. Side note: most of our calls came from the East coast. I was talking to a lady and trying to help her with her treadmill. She said, just a second, I have another call coming in. When she got back on the line she said it was her friend calling to tell her that they had confirmed her (her friend's) husband had been killed at the World Trade Center. I said, Oh, I'm sorry. I can call you back later. She said, no, its ok. We already knew, they were just confirming it. She then went on to ask me if my life had been altered at all by these events. I said, honestly, no. I live in Utah and I didn't know anyone who died. She said, we can't get on with our lives. We can't even play little league because almost every kid on the team lost at least one parent! This is when it really hit home for me that real people with real lives lost their lives. She said getting her treadmill fixed was something she could do to try and get back to normal life.
I just want to take a minute to remember those who lost their lives 7 years ago. Where were you when " the world stopped turning?" (have you heard that song?)
6 comments:
It is one of those moments that I'll never forget either. I even remember what I was wearing. I was getting ready for the day when the phone rang. It was my roommate's boyfriend. He told me to turn on the news becuase it was "Pearl Harbor all over again." My roommates and I watched in stunned silence. My classes at BYU were cancelled, but I remember going to devotional. It was the opening devotional of the year and President Bateman ended up talking about peace and the events of the day.
I've heard that when something emotional happens and has an impact on you, it's easy to remember where you were, what you were doing. I remember everything from that day and just being grateful that my family was safe and so sorry for those whose weren't. The summer of '02 my family and I went to the Stadium of Fire at BYU that featured Toby Keith and when he sang "Angry American (Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue)" I've never been so proud to be an American. I can't believe it's been 7 years...
I was teaching seminary at the time and was getting ready to leave at 6:10am. I saw when the first plane hit the tower and they didn't know at that time if it was an accident or not. By the time my kids came to seminary, a second one had hit and then some late stragglers said the Pentagon was hit and a plane gone down in PA. We were all shocked. After seminary, we listened to the radio as I took some of the students to school. It was just something on the news to them. I told them, at that time, there will come a day when you realise this is big and will have a profound effect on history. So it is
walking back to our dungeon of an apartment in Provo. I had just finished a really early speech anatomy class and was on my way to work at Kneaders ( a local sandwich/ bread shop). Everyone was glued to tvs as I walked through the buildings on BYU campus, and at home I saw a little of what happened. But it wasn't until a few days later that I began to realize what a truly horrific thing had just taken place.
I first heard about it on the radio when Jake was driving me to work at the Rexburg Nursing Home, and then I walked in, and it was on every TV. All the residents and employees were watching it, and it was just so crazy. I had to do damage control after that, eventually turning the channel on all the resident TV's because they were getting so upset. But, the employees and I would go to my boss's office and watch through out the day. We ended up making ribbons the next day,and handing them out to all workers, visitors, and residents that wanted them. That kind of helped me to realize how terrible it really was.
I was a Freshman And I remember waking up and My dad just standing there staring at the TV. I walked over to see what had his attention and thought it was a rerun of something a long time ago. Then I asked him, "When was this?" He said something like, "a few minutes ago." I was floored and confused. I went to school and about everyone was talking about it and most teachers just turned the news on and skipped lesson plans. Then someone started a rumor that there were more planes and one was headed West. like toward Salt Lake. It scared the begeebeez out of us. I remember wonder how our lives would change because of it. Even though I was not one of those who lost loved ones, I was still affected by it. My step dad served over in Afganistan as a result of the attacks. That day was the scariest I've ever had, and it taught me to not take the freedoms and safety we have in this country for granted. God Bless America.
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