9/11 Never Forget

Twenty two years ago people went to work as usual on that morning not knowing that our country would be forever changed! We thought it was just a regular morning but it wasn’t. New York City and Washington DC were soon under attack when planes crashed into the World Trade Centers and Pentagon. It was a day we NEVER FORGET!

It is said that every generation has an event that they will always remember where they were when they heard a new story. In my parents generation it was when President Kennedy was killed or when John Lennon was killed. For my generation it is where were you when you heard the news of 9/11. Here’s my story of where I was on that day:

It was a Tuesday morning in Carterville Illinois. I woke up at 7:30 AM. I turned on the TV as I was getting ready for a doctor’s appointment and school later in the day at John A Logan College. I saw the World Trade Centers on fire and thought oh the Trade Centers are on fire and went back to sleep for a few minutes before my second alarm went off. I woke up again after that just to see them crumble to the ground. I got up and ran to my parents room to tell my mom. We sat there watching and crying as the video played over and over. It’s an image you don’t forget.

I had to get ready for my appointment so I got a shower and got dressed. As I was driving to Carbondale I had the radio on. Usually the morning show on CIL-FM was playing music and having fun conversations with the hosts and listeners. That morning they were just talking about what had happened. I remember people calling into the show sharing stories of what they heard about it. One caller said that they worked at the Williamson County Airport, a small airport on highway 148 and State Highway 13 in Herrin Illinois. They said that there was a plane that was supposed to be landing an hour before and it had just disappeared from the radar. They couldn’t find it anywhere on the radar or couldn’t get in contact with the pilots. As the caller was talking to them the plane started to land on the runway. It was very weird to why it had gone off the radar and I don’t think it was ever figured out why.

While I was waiting for my appointment it was so quiet in the office. Usually there’s people talking and usual doctor’s office noise but that morning everything was just quiet. I went back and the radio was on. People were still calling in with stories. After I saw the doctor I went to Subway to get lunch before going to school. I wanted to get there before my class to work on my homework a little. Not that I understood anything about it since it was a math class but I was kind of understanding a little bit of it with the help of a friend. Anyway, I was sitting in a common area eating my sandwich and looking over homework. There were TVs brought into the common areas and people were just gathered around them watching the news. This wasn’t a normal thing. The commons were usually quiet with people sitting there getting ready for classes or taking breaks between classes. People were gathered around watching with others they didn’t even know embracing and comforting each other. As it came time for my class to start I go into the classroom and my teacher came in and said that with the events that happened he didn’t think it was appropriate to have class so class was cancelled.

As I was walking through the halls I walked by the military recruitment office. There was a line twenty feet long of people waiting to talk to the recruitment officer. The student worker in the office was a classmate of mine and I’d pop in to the office to say hi every time I saw him in there but I didn’t that day because he was so busy. I talked to him at our next class and he said that he missed two classes the day before because of the line of people. There were so many students that wanted to enlist because of that day.

Looking back on the events 9/11, I feel that we came together to comfort strangers and friends. We banded together to bring the terrorists that caused this tragic event down. In recent years however that sense of coming together has faded away. Now we are turning against each other just because of political views. If someone has a different viewpoint than you that makes them a horrible person. I believe that we can live together in a world where we have opposite views if we can talk about them without arguing. I don’t see that happening though.