10 years ago today I was away at college. I was getting ready for class when the planes crashed and I honestly didn’t understand the impact or what really happened. I knew it was really bad but I had no clue that life as we knew it would change. I remember heading to my first class and so many people were absent and the professor didn’t even acknowledge what happened. She later emailed all of us apologizing that she didn’t cancel class saying she was locked up in her office and hadn’t heard the news.
I remember my mom calling me telling me to come home and that she was going to take my siblings out of school because she wanted all five of us at home with her. She was worried what else would happen. I told her I was fine and to calm down.
I remember my grandma calling me a few days later as she was just coming back from vacation in Florida and telling me about all the extra security at the airport. It probably didn’t help that she and her family members were foreign (Norwegian) and didn’t really understand everything that was happening.
On that day 2,977 people died, more than 6000 were injured and since then there have been 18000 victims of toxic dust-related illnesses. I still can’t believe those numbers. I had no clue about the toxic dust either until this year. I read an article on how a NY police officer worked for months to help clear out Ground Zero only to die a year later of toxic dust exposure. My heart also goes out to those that died as a result of 9/11 – many people do not realize that not everyone died on 9/11 from 9/11.
I still can’t believe ten years have passed and my heart goes out to those that have lost people. I am actually just now starting to understand everything that has happened and I couldn’t even imagine living in New York at the time. I think it is amazing though how everyone seemed to work together and help one an another. I hope we never have to go through something like that again as a country, but I glad that it seemed to at least make us all stronger and more patriotic.
God Bless America!
Becca says
I feel the exact same way about everything you said! I was just in my first year of college, sitting in class when we got the news. I was so young and oblivious to it. I didn’t even know what terroism was at that time! 10 years later I have a very different perspective on things. My heart goes out to everyone involved. I also didn’t know about the severity of the toxic dust exposure until this year either, wow!