It was one of those historical moments that everyone knows exactly what they were doing when they first found out. It is probably one of the most intense historical moments in modern times.
I've never recorded my own memories of that day and I have always wanted to and what better day than the tenth anniversary of that awful day.
9/11/2001
At the time I had two boys. My youngest was only 10 months old. He didn't sleep well that night and woke up incredibly early. I got up with him and put on a video that he could watch while I caught a few more winks. When the video turned off, the television automatically turned back on. I couldn't believe what I saw. It was around 6 AM PST and only one building had been hit at that time. Matt Lauer from the Today Show was reporting on the plane that had struck the World Trade Center. They were theorizing it was all an accident.
That was until, the second plane hit.
We watched the scene over and over and over again.
Then as Matt was reporting. I saw some kind of cloud from one of the buildings live over his shoulder. The first tower had collapsed. Unbelieveable.
It was my older son's first day of preschool. Would it be cancelled? What was going on? It was a frightening, scary day. Though nothing compared to the hell the people in New York were living through. NOTHING.
Once my older son, 3 at the time, woke up, we turned off the television. We didn't want him to see those images over and over again. He did see it a few times. He wanted to know when the plane was going to stop crashing into the building. It was after he asked that question that we switched to the radio for our information.
School went on as planned.
It was an eerily quiet day. It was a great way to get my mind off what was going on. Being a co-op preschool with a culture of very involved parents, I stayed the entire session as did all the other parents. I was able to lose myself in the events of my son's first day of school. It was comforting.
The days that followed were strange. We were waiting for another attack. I remember the skies were quiet since no planes were allowed to fly for several days. Since we lived on the coast, every so often we did hear a plane. When that happened, it made us all nervous, but every time it turned out to be a military plane patrolling the coast.
What I learned from the past ten years is that although the world has changed, our lives as Americans are still pretty darned good. Some of us may not feel as safe as we once did, but honestly, we are just as safe now as we were before 9/11. We just weren't aware of the real dangers that existed out there.
I am so inspired by the survivors and those who died doing heroic deeds. The story that touches me the most is the passengers of Flight 93. I can't imagine being put in their situation. I am also amazed by the people who were victims of the 9/11 attacks and yet took their lives and did great things by serving other people. If I could only be so brave.
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