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Looking Back: 20 Years After 9/11
Wait…Planes Hit The World Trade Center?
It’s weird to look back on the twenty years since 9/11. It’s even weirder to think that I know people that don’t remember what life was like before.
I was a 21 year old university student. That morning, I was supposed to be reading for class, but fell asleep. When I woke up, there was a small rock group performing and I really liked them. I remember that one of the guitarists played some really cool slide guitar riffs, on a few songs. Then, all of a sudden, the music stopped. I remember thinking, “What the fuck?! The music was just getting good.”
So I was trying to return to my reading, when I began hearing that “ planes crashed into the World Trade Center.” Maybe, my brain was a little drowsy still, but it just didn’t make any sense. I honestly thought that it had to be a small private plane. Did it get lost? How could they not see The World Trade Center? I think that a TV was tuned to the news, when I, finally, realized that…no… these were huge passenger planes.
I remember calling home on a payphone and I might have had to borrow some change to call. As was his habit, my dad had the news on and confirmed that a large passenger plan did crash into The World Trade Center. I vaguely remember everyone around me just look at each other with looks that screamed, “ What the hell is going on?!” This wasn’t something that just happened. Was this another Pearl Harbor?
I remember going to class. The university decided not to close because they felt that it would be better to stay, so that we could be there for each other. I mean how do you go to class without wondering if there would be further attacks? Many students, including me, were pissed off that the university didn’t close. In hindsight, I could have gone home. However, there were instructors that used attendance to calculate final grades. Since I was a very average university student, I didn’t feel that I could afford to lose points, so I stayed.
I couldn’t tell you what it was like to finally get home. At that time, I had yet to get a phone. I can only imagine how both my parents and I were relieved that I was home. Between not knowing what was going and going to class that day, there truly was no place like home.
