Like the vast majority of Americans who were alive when the terror attacks of 9-11-2001 were committed, I am thinking of the lives that were lost, where my life was at the time, and how the world has changed since then. It was one of those days which leaves a permanent mark on one's memory, much like the assassination of John F. Kennedy did for those who lived through that dark moment of American history.
I was not long after finishing some courses at a local community college that day. At the time, I was studying to become a meteorologist. I had already finished a slew of correspondence courses through Mississippi State University and been certified in broadcast meteorology. However, I had no desire to be on public TV or radio and instead desired to work at the National Weather Service. Mississippi State had expanded the program to allow students to try to earn their degrees both through transferring credits from other colleges and through completing the rest on campus. I had recently maxed out the credits I could transfer. I had a job at a local amusement park to finish out the summer.
So on September 11th, 2001, I didn't have to work or anything. I had for years kept the radio on at night as I like to sleep with music playing. We had a little golden retriever puppy named Major, who always slept in the bed with me, and when he needed to go potty, he would simply get in my face and lick me with his tail wagging until I got up.
This was how my day started. I let Major out into the backyard, and he was only out a few minutes before he did his business and came flying back into the house, because he knew he would get a doggy treat. Which he did, and lots of loving. He was a very good dog. Anyway, we went back up to bed, and just minutes after I laid back down came an announcement on the radio that the first of the two planes had struck the World Trade Center. The initial report had stated that it appeared to be a small plane that had crashed into the tower accidentally -- unusual, but certainly not impossible.
So other than initial feelings of hoping no one was hurt or killed, I didn't think much of it, and the dog and I went back to bed. But it was only about 10 minutes later when they broke into their programming again and announced that the second plane had just hit the second tower, and I knew immediately that this had to be a terrorist attack and flew out of bed, turned on my computer, and signed into a message board for singer Nina Gordon, of which I had been a member at the time (I don't know if it still exists, to be honest). I posted a new thread with the title, "THE UNITED STATES UNDER TERRORIST ATTACK!"
Many of us ultimately posted to the thread that day. I knew a few people from the board who lived in NYC and was relieved as they checked in that they were okay. I talked to a few other people on instant messaging throughout the day and evening. My best friend at the time told me that she had even heard of a plot to strike the oil refinery near where I lived, as well, though nothing ever materialized.
Naturally, I was glued to news coverage for the rest of that day, witnessing the moments when the towers themselves collapsed to the ground. I couldn't believe what I was witnessing. Sometime around 5:30 PM, I finally left the house because I needed to try to focus on something else. I remember getting to a shopping mall several miles down the road and finding out it had been closed; Wal-Mart, which still anchored one end of the mall at the time, was still open but was going to close early. I ended up going to a Baskin Robbins which was still open and getting some ice cream while I simply tried to decompress from everything that was happening.
I don't remember much from after I finally returned home. I think for the most part, I simply watched more news coverage and talked to people on-line until I was finally ready to try and sleep. I was definitely glad to have my puppy with me to sleep with.
We can safely say that what happened on 9-11-2001 ended an era of relative safety within the United States. I'm not going to go into a huge, fact-checking post about war or policy, but I would be remiss if I didn't point out some of the most significant things to arise from the attacks:
- The Patriot Act, which began the slippery slope of expanded government surveillance and has resulted in the saga of Edward Snowden and attempts to roll back our rights.
This, of course, is just the tip of the iceberg of all the major events which have transformed the entire world since the attacks of September 11th, 2001. But we will see the ramifications of both the triumphs and failures which have arisen from the ashes for years or even generations to come. Even now, the world is struggling to grasp how best to handle the ever-expanding conflicts in the Middle East, and the rise of ISIS has led to growing division and animosity within America on how to treat the Muslims living among us.
The best we can hope for, then, is that we never forget the events of 9-11, and that whomever next takes the presidency will have the strength, wisdom, and courage to bring the kind of change needed to quell tensions both here and abroad and finally defeat ISIS. Because heaven help the entire world if our next president gets it wrong.