remembering 9/11

sunday marks the 10th anniversary of the attacks on america.  i think that many will always remember where they were and what they were doing that tuesday morning.

....i had only just started my senior year of college.  andrea and i had recently purchased our flights to new york city, a place andrea had never visited and i was eager to show her.  still needing to get a hotel room for our october trip, we decided to try priceline for a good deal.  so on monday evening (september 10) we entered a ridiculously low price for a three-star hotel.  we were excited to learn that our price was accepted and we were even upgraded to a four-star hotel!  our hotel was the marriott world trade center.  this was great because i knew the area pretty well from visiting a friend who was living in jersey, taking the PATH train into WTC.  
....tuesday morning i woke up for my art methods class.  though i never turned on the tv while getting ready (i always allowed myself just enough time to wake up, shower, dress and head out the door), this particular morning i turned my tv onto the news.  the national news station was showing breaking news, something about a small, private aircraft hitting the world trade center in lower manhattan.  then there was some conflicting news about the size of the aircraft, some said it was a larger aircraft.  as more news was gathered, they believed that it was a commercial aircraft which flew into the north tower of the WTC.  as i attempted to get ready for class i couldn't take my eyes off the developing news.  it was then that in the corner of the screen came another aircraft smashing into the other tower.  it was then clear that this was no accident.  
....stunned i drove to class and parked near the education building.  on my drive, i called my friend matt to see if he was okay.  he regularly took the train into the WTC station.  i was only able to leave a voicemail for him, letting him know that i hoped he was okay and safe.  when i got to my class, some people were just learning the events of the morning.  many of the girls in class with me were from long island.  many had family or friends who worked in manhattan, even the WTC itself.  they made phone calls to their loved ones.  some were able to reach their family, others were unable to get through.  i couldn't even imagine their worry.  still not knowing the great extent of what was going on, we began class.  half-way through the class another teacher came into our room to tell us that one of the towers fell to the ground.  i honestly could not fathom this.  i had been to nyc before.  i had been in the WTC many times.  there's NO WAY that those towers could crumble to the ground.  ....after class, i spend the rest of the morning and the afternoon at andrea's house watching the non-stop coverage of the disaster unfolding.  in addition to the attacks in nyc, a plane hit the pentagon and another plane crashed in a field in pennsylvania.  the footage shown on repeat was something out of a movie.  people screaming, running for safety, covered in ash, debris covering the streets of lower manhattan.  a giant plume of smoke rose from the place where the twin towers once stood.  
....i had one class tuesday evening that had not been cancelled.  i couldn't quite understand why the teacher had not cancelled the class, but since it was our first session for our final semester of practicum, i knew that i had to attend.  as soon as we were in the class, many of us started to complain that we didn't understand why we were there.  the teacher then said that this was a perfect teaching opportunity.  "what would you do if you were in a classroom of students?  how would you handle this situation?"  it made sense, seeing as we would all be student teaching the following semester.  we discussed the situation and how we might handle it as teachers.  it was surreal.  all day long there had been chatter about gas going from $1.75/gallon to over $3.00/gallon!!  our teacher let us out early.  as i drove home, i saw a line of cars down the street waiting to get into the gas station to fill up their cars.  i knew then that life as we knew it would change forever.  

now here we are, ten years later.  the world has changed greatly since that september morning.

it's a day that we will never forget.

photo found here.