Many people are stopping to reflect today. Many people are taking moments to remember what happened ten years ago and what they were doing when events transpired. September 11, 2001 is a day that many will never forget.
Ten years ago I had just started college. My husband (then fiancee) and I went to the same campus of Penn State. We drove together and when one had a class and the other didn't, we waited for each other. That morning, Hubby had a test to take in his one math class. He had class with two other friends from high school. As we were all talking before the class, one said a friend just told them that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. We were like, what? We had no concept of what this meant. We all figured it was a small bi-plane or something like that. Maybe even a joke (we had many jokers in our group). Hubby and friends went into the class and began their test. I found a chair in the lobby of the building and sat there doing homework and just killing time. I would say within a half hour of the beginning of the class, maintenance workers and some faculty from the college were around the one TV that hung in the lobby trying to fix it and get it to show the news. I didn't pay a ton of mind to it, until they got it fixed.
When I looked at the pictures on the screen and listened to what was being said, I realized that this was so much more than we originally thought. The crowd of students and staff kept growing and a group of maybe 30 or more of us were sitting and standing there watching the screen as we watched the second plane hit. Then we were all watching as the towers fell. And when we heard that a plane hit the pentagon.
So much happened in the time it took Hubby to finish that math test. Classes were cancelled for the rest of the day and they made sure students would be okay driving home if they did not live on campus. Everyone was in some state of shock as to what happened that morning.
I was just glad that Hubby and I had driven together. He could drive and my head could spin. My aunt lived in NYC and she went to NYU. I did not know where in her travels she would be in the city and if she was anywhere close to the towers. Another aunt and her family live in Yonkers and her son worked in the city as well. I didn't know how they were. I had a brother who had only recently retired from working at the pentagon and an uncle who still worked there. Were they both away from the Pentagon when this all happened?
We were all wanting to find out about those we cared for and make sure they were okay. We were all on cell phones trying to find out as much as we could. We all crashed the system and we couldn't get through.
Truly this is as far as I really remember of that day. Everything else has turned to a blur. It blurred quickly for me.
Today Hubby is playing in a concert with the Alumni Band in our area. There will be choirs, the band and a soloist. It will be reminiscent of a concert the band did shortly after that day. This is how we are remembering ten years. We are taking time to remember those who left this world that day and those who are out there still fighting for those who fell that day.
Until next time...
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