September 11th

What were you doing 11 September 2001? 

         I was walking to class at Brigham Young University that morning with my husband. I was a little over five months pregnant with my first child, wearing a red dress. I’m pretty short, so even at five months walking from our apartment up to campus was a haul with all my books, so my husband was carrying both our backpacks. We use to cut through a building to go up, so I could take the elevator at that point rather than scale the multitude of stairs required from where we lived. I remember there was a TV at the top of the building close to where we had to exit, and the first tower had been struck. I didn’t have a lot of time before I had to be in class. I just stood their dumbfounded, and we both turned to each other, and promised to get to class quickly and then meet in the student center afterwards to find out what was going on. I was personally freaking out, because my grandmother had passed away the week before and my mom was driving from Illinois to Connecticut for her burial. I knew that that particular morning she was scheduled to drive through New York. I knew I couldn’t call her right away, I couldn’t afford a cell phone at the time, and knew I would have to wait until I could get to a phone.

         To class I went, German I believe, completely distracted. Half the class hadn’t seen the TVs, so we were all “did you see?” “Do you know what is happening?” Did you see more?” I don’t know if the teacher hadn’t seen anything or just chose to try to get us to focus on class, but we sat through the whole class, and I met up with my husband and headed to the student center. We just stood grouped around the TVs in the store on campus and watched as the towers fell. I was just in shock. I knew I had to try to get ahold of my mom. I tried, but she didn’t answer. So at this point, I am really freaking out. I called my dad, hoping that she had gotten ahold of him. No luck at that point. Trying to go about my day that day was one of the most difficult things I have ever had to do emotionally. It wasn’t until that evening that I would hear from my mom. She was safe. She had actually been entering New York on the Tappan Zee Bridge when the first tower was struck. She said that all the signs just started flashing “NEW YORK CLOSED!” I was so thankful she was safe, and so very heartbroken to witness such pointless violence.

         Each and every year we remember the sorrow and strength of that day. We united as a nation. Now 16 years later, where are we as a nation but even more divided than ever before. It breaks my heart all over again. On this day of remembrance, I encourage us all to remember that we are all one people. We may come from different backgrounds, believe in different Gods or no Gods at all, we may speak different languages, have differing skin color, or love someone different than our neighbor, but we are one people all spinning around on this crazy world, and the only way forward is to be united in love and kindness towards our fellow man/woman.

         What do you remember?