I Remember Where I Was On 9-11
14 years ago today, when our nation was attacked by terrorists, I was working nights at the Post Office. I had just gotten home from work and was about to go to the bank with a paycheck and vote (our city’s mayor was up for re-election), and then go to bed when I noticed that my mom’s eyes were glued to the television. I looked to see what she was so engrossed in, and I saw a plane fly into a tall building and watched it collapse. My first thought was, “What a terrible accident.” It didn’t even occur to me that someone might have done this on purpose. Then I saw another plane fly into the other building next to it, and I heard the reporter say, “That was definitely intentional. This has to be deliberate, folks.” But my mind still couldn’t accept that someone could have done that intentionally. Then, I heard that another plane had crashed into the Pentagon, and still another one (which was most likely headed for the White House) had gone down. So there was no denying that this was an attack, not an accident. But it still took a while for it to sink in.
Because at least two of these planes were United flights, I immediately thought of my next older sister, who was a flight attendant for United Airlines at the time. My sister called as soon as she could get to a phone. She was stranded in Chicago, because all of the flights had been grounded. My mom told me as soon as she got off the phone with her. We were so relieved to know that she was okay.
After staring at the TV and watching this scene replayed over and over again for a while, I managed to tear myself away from the TV and went about my business. I went to the bank and made my deposit, and then voted. When I was coming back from the bank, all the buses were full of people who had been sent home from work early, because everyone was afraid that a plane might crash into whatever building they happened to be working in downtown. So I just managed to get my business done before they shut everything down for the day. Voter turnout was at a record low. I wonder how many people in Minneapolis remembered that there was an election that day.
I couldn’t help feeling a little bit guilty about the fact that I wasn’t affected by this in the same way that some other people were. So many people were terrified, or grief-stricken, by what had just happened. But I was a little bit too preoccupied by what was going on in my own personal life to be emotionally impacted in the way that a lot of other people were. You see, during the time when this happened, I was falling hard and fast for a guy at work who was devastatingly handsome and seemed to be everything that I could possibly want. So, though my mind was trying to process this horrible thing that had just happened, my emotions were too focused on my feelings of attraction for him to really feel the impact of what had just happened. So when the news media advised people to just go ahead and do whatever they were about to do when this happened and not let it change any of their plans, I didn’t have any problem taking this advice. This was very out of character for me, because I am usually very emotionally affected by things like this.
This makes me wonder, was there any “right” way to respond to this? Does this make me a callous or self-absorbed person?
What are your memories of that day? Where were you? What was going on in your life at that time? What were your thoughts?
Because at least two of these planes were United flights, I immediately thought of my next older sister, who was a flight attendant for United Airlines at the time. My sister called as soon as she could get to a phone. She was stranded in Chicago, because all of the flights had been grounded. My mom told me as soon as she got off the phone with her. We were so relieved to know that she was okay.
After staring at the TV and watching this scene replayed over and over again for a while, I managed to tear myself away from the TV and went about my business. I went to the bank and made my deposit, and then voted. When I was coming back from the bank, all the buses were full of people who had been sent home from work early, because everyone was afraid that a plane might crash into whatever building they happened to be working in downtown. So I just managed to get my business done before they shut everything down for the day. Voter turnout was at a record low. I wonder how many people in Minneapolis remembered that there was an election that day.
I couldn’t help feeling a little bit guilty about the fact that I wasn’t affected by this in the same way that some other people were. So many people were terrified, or grief-stricken, by what had just happened. But I was a little bit too preoccupied by what was going on in my own personal life to be emotionally impacted in the way that a lot of other people were. You see, during the time when this happened, I was falling hard and fast for a guy at work who was devastatingly handsome and seemed to be everything that I could possibly want. So, though my mind was trying to process this horrible thing that had just happened, my emotions were too focused on my feelings of attraction for him to really feel the impact of what had just happened. So when the news media advised people to just go ahead and do whatever they were about to do when this happened and not let it change any of their plans, I didn’t have any problem taking this advice. This was very out of character for me, because I am usually very emotionally affected by things like this.
This makes me wonder, was there any “right” way to respond to this? Does this make me a callous or self-absorbed person?
What are your memories of that day? Where were you? What was going on in your life at that time? What were your thoughts?
51-55, F
