Ten Years Ago

I got on here today to update the world about my summer adventures and all those things I promised to write about in my last post way back in June, but it seemed fitting to start with a 9/11 tribute.  After I wrote it, I didn't think I could really switch gears and put my normal sarcasm and annoying "pretend-I'm-awesome,-okay?-snarkiness, and all the fun things I did this summer into the same post...it just didn't seem right, so I'll post that stuff later tonight, but for now I'll just leave you with my thoughts and memories from 10 years ago today

I noticed on Facebook earlier that a lot of people posted a little something, so I wanted to participate.  I remember I came home from marching band at the high school up the street so I could catch my carpool from my house to the jr. high, because I was in 9th grade, so not yet in the high school building.  I was upstairs talking to my brother Kevin who was about to head to school too, when we heard my dad downstairs shout "Good Heavens!!!"  but we immediately knew there was nothing good about it; it was more a super shocked and horrified exclamation.  Kevin and I ran downstairs and saw one of the World Trade Towers smoking on TV and the news person saying that a plane had crashed into it.  I remember we were all thinking it was a terrible mistake.  Did the pilot fall asleep?  Did he lose control of the plane?  How did this happen?  Then I saw a little silver glint flying the the air.  At the last second I realized it was another airplane; then it crashed into the other tower.  I will never forget that feeling sinking in deep that this was no accident.  It was an attack.  I remember watching and watching replays of that and listening to the newscasters talking.  It was probably only 15 minutes or so before my carpool picked me up to go to school.  I don't remember the ride, but I remember when I got to school listening to the students who knew about it tell the students who hadn't heard yet, and hearing about the other airplanes crashing into the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania.  Our principal got on the intercom and told teachers to turn their TVs off and get back to teaching and this had nothing to do with us, but only one of my 7 classes didn't have the TV on that day.  I remember Mr. Toponce, my Geography teacher, telling us that our principal was an idiot and this has everything to do with us, that this was our country, our people, and our history in the making.  I watched the South tower collapse in Mr. Nelson's Science class.

That evening the youth at my church were putting on a dinner for the elderly people in our ward.  We had been planning it for awhile and most of the food was already made, so we couldn't really cancel it.  It was actually a wonderful (though sorrowful) experience for me, and I'm sure for many other teenagers there that day.  We were able to listen to people who lived through Pearl Harbor talk about that experience, and how the country and their lives were changed by that, and how it would probably be similar for my generation and 9/11.   Later in the evening some youth were starting to act dumb, thinking back on it, it was probably their way of coping with catastrophe, but Kevin and I couldn't take it anymore, so we went outside and just walked laps around the church quietly talking to each other about what had happened.  I remember my family was a little financially tight at the time, and as we were walking Kevin brought up that he was working as a janitor at the high school, and he knew I needed a graphing calculator for my math class and he wanted to buy it with his money instead of having my parents buy it.  We went out and got it that night.  It's weird how vividly you remember small details of days like that.  I don't know if I've ever written all of this down.  I used to be an avid journal writer, but I don't think I started until my sophomore year of high school.  I stopped when I started teaching because I was so busy with other things, which is sad, but honestly, my first year of teaching was so horrible I don't think I want to remember it.  Though it was also my first year of marriage, and I do want to remember that part.  Anyway, my writing has wandered all over today.  Sorry.  This turned out much much longer than I anticipated.  I guess the point of all this is I just want to say that my prayers are with the families of victims and rescuers lost that day, and also the soldiers subsequently lost because of the events of September 11, 2001.