Remembering...

I have spent time today, remembering 8 years ago. I'm not sure if it is because Sophia is the exact age Trevor was when 9/11 occur ed, or if the memory is starting to fade into snapshots, so I want to fight to hold onto what I remember of that day.

Eight years ago, I was a Junior in college. Trevor was almost 1, and Mandy and I had been married that summer. I woke up that morning, and remember heading to the basement to check my email, among other things. I went to SI.com, and remember seeing what I know now was a picture of smoke pouring out of the Twin Towers, the planes had just hit. I was interested into how the Brewers did the night before. A large smoking building didn't register with me. I went upstairs, and we had turned on toon Disney or Nickelodeon for Trevor. It was one of the only channels that was not covering what happened. I went on that morning for quite some time, oblivious to events that would change our country forever.

Not until our sitter showed up and made mention that a plane had hit one of the towers of the World Trade Center. We were on our way to class, but I remember speculating that it must have been a small personal plane. It had happened before, but I didn't think much of it.

In the car on the way to class, the world now knew that both towers had been hit by planes, the local radio station had switched over to one of the national affiliates for coverage.

I remember I had a Poli Sci class with Professor Reily. He gave us the option of having class or watching coverage. We unanimously chose to watch coverage. This was around the time the towers fell. It was hard to comprehend, I remember seeing just a huge cloud of smoke/dust, and the reporters saying that the towers had fell.

At this point you start realizing that this was not an accident, that this was something planned. Reports of the plane hitting the Pentagon started coming out, along with reports of another missing plane. You start to wonder if you knew anyone flying that day, and worse, what was going to get hit next.

I doubt anyone had class that day, but most of my classes were full. It's like people didn't want to sit and watch coverage alone. Everyone's confidence/faith was shaken.

The largest room in the Comm building had a large projector screen TV, and there was a constant stream of traffic in and out of it. People would stop in and get filled in on what new info had come out.

How many were missing?

How many people are they saying were in the buildings?

A plane went down in Pennsylvania?

Was it terrorists?

I hear gas prices are going up?

Have we retaliated yet?

I think people wanted to ask, more than they wanted answers.

I went to work at Rogans, we had very few people come in, but it gave us time to speculate as to what happened. My theory was that the pilots were working for the terrorists, that the plot had been in the works for years. No way would a pilot be forced to fly into the buildings.

We stood in front of the store and watched the line for gas form, and stretch down the road.

We wondered if we should go over and buy supplies at the grocery store.

None of us had been through anything like this, so none of us knew how to act. I think in the back of our heads we thought of war time, air raids, rations.

Being in college allowed me to stay up all hours of the night. Being a Comm major, it fascinated how long the networks went without breaking for a commerical, and how many channels were showing coverage. You could flip through the channels and 9 times out of 10 land on coverage of the attacks.

I remember the nation coming together. We were all just citizens for those few days. No Republicans or Democrats, nobody leaned let or right, we all stood up together against the unknown.

I want to remember this day, and remember the unity that it gave us. As a nation we have moved far from that unity. I hope that one day we can come together again, I just hope it doesn't take a disaster to do it.