I remember the day unfolding in my dorm room in NYC. I woke up to get ready for my first class of the day...then went to my computer. My friend IM'd me asking if I had heard about the WTC? My initial reaction was... uh... you mean like 7-8 years ago? She said - go and turn the TV on. Woh - what's going on. One tower had been struck by a plane. The smoke was billowing up into the clouds, flames still bright and smoky. I stood motionless in front of the TV. My suitemates started walking over. They sat down. Then all of a sudden another plane comes across and flies into the 2nd building. At first, I thought they were showing a video replay of the plane hitting the building, but then I quickly realized that now both buildings had been hit and were on fire. Wow. I could not believe. In my mind I thought, could this really be happening? What's going on? It was shocking to see the plane hit the 2nd tower as it happened - that doesn't happen in today's news. The broadcasters were just as shocked as we were. I had to go to class but I didn't want to leave the TV. What's going on? I packed up and left for class.
In class, the teacher dismissed anyone who needed to connect with family members who worked in the Towers but asked everyone else to stay. We acknowledged what happened, and then we attempted to go on with class. The teacher wanted to keep some semblance of order, of regularity, that us watching the news all day or venturing downtown to the site would not do anyone any good. I got back to my dorm after class and both Towers were engulfed in flames. Then suddenly 1 just begins collapsing in on itself. I was so disturbed... what's going on? Oh man my heart sunk. How many lives were lost. What will happen? Who was in there? Do I have friends or family in there? I didn't want to leave the TV, but I had to get to my next class - they weren't canceling them. Afterward as I walked back to my dorm, you could see the smoke clouds billowing high above in the sky. People were staring at the sky. People were chattering. People were scared. People were dazed. I came back to the TV and the 2nd tower was gone too. So surreal...All the phone lines are axed or busy so I can't call my parents. I send my mom an IM to let her know we're fine. Thank God for IM... it was our means of communicating both on campus with our peers as well as with family whereever they may be. I am utterly shocked. I can't believe what I'm seeing. The two towers... an iconic symbol of NYC... was gone. More importantly, the people who didn't make it out. God what is going on.
Growing up in central Jersey, friends' parents worked in those buildings. Did they make it out okay? I thought, it could have easily been me or my family in those towers. I had recently just sung there with my gospel choir at the amex building at 3 World Financial Center right next door... I was frequently in office buildings throughout NYC interning or interviewing for internships.. we just visited the Towers a few months earlier on a family NYC trip. We have several snapshots looking up at the towers - one that was just taken months earlier. It was scary to think about that...all we could do was sit there, in front of the tv and watch as the tragedy evolved, from NYC to DC to PA. I would find out later that the man who helped take down the terrorists and the plane in PA lived in the neighborhood behind mine and attended a church that we sometimes visited.. leaving behind a young beautiful family. Recent Columbia grads who worked in those Towers didn't make it. But there were also plenty of stories of survivors - people who made it out and had to walk to NJ to get home or who for whatever reason were not yet in the office or did not go that day. We were thankful they made it... but they all had stories of others who did not.
We all felt so helpless - we all wanted to do something to help, but what could we do? There was a public call for blood donations to local blood banks. As we headed to the hospital, we were told by others that they didn't need anymore blood. I'll spare the details why. They announced that they were closing all the bridges and tunnels going in and out of NYC. We half joked... great... we're stranded on this island...
The next day we woke up to a smoky sky with a burning smell in the air. Classes were still on. We talked about it. We discussed it. We debated it. Interfaith prayer vigils were scheduled. Tents went up where donations of food and clothing articles popped up. A memorial was held on campus for CU alumni who perished - so many grads, some old, some young... some that had just graduated months earlier.
At the time, I was working with a couple of youth-led / youth empowerment organizations. The UN General Assembly was having a Special Session on Children later that month that I was supposed to report on as a youth correspondent. That was postponed due to 9/11 but we knew we needed to pull together a global youth response to what just happened. A video conference meeting with youths from around the world was quickly thrown together where we shared openly about our reactions and feelings on what had just happened. Feelings of sadness and real anger (harsh virtual punches) came out on that call, but we, a group of teenagers and slightly older, were able to work through that in a relatively mature manner as we listened to each other and put ourselves in each others' shoes. I thought... if only the global leaders could have conversations like this and learn to listen to each other and work together... what would our world look like? (I'm happy to see that this is starting to happen and I'm praying that the recent Middle East talks move in a positive way... I am a nerd... I rushed home from NYC one day so that I could watch the live news briefing of Pres Obama and Middle East leaders...). Friends and family were telling us not to use the subways because of potential terrorist threats, but it's hard to live in NYC and avoid the subways. I remember taking the 7 train to soccer games and staring at the gaping hole in the NYC skyline. I remember hearing sirens (a common occurrence in NYC before 9/11) and fighter planes in the sky, holding my breath hoping everything would be alright. I wanted to flee NYC. I left that spring to study abroad in China... where news is so filtered that everything sounds wonderful and the world seems to have no problems (okay, an extreme statement but you get the point...).
I had written an article in 2001 for another org's blog. I was reminded of it today and just posted it on my blog: http://tamstergk1.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2001-01-01T00:00:00-05:00&updated-max=2002-01-01T00:00:00-05:00&max-results=1. Got some negative reactions and positive encouragement in response to that article in '01, but it's what was on my mind then...
Anyhow on this anniversary of 9/11, I want to honor those that lost their lives that day. The day will never be forgotten. Your lives will never be forgotten.
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