9/11 Remembrance

We never remember fleeting moments; we are lucky to remember what we ate the previous day and if we remembered to call our parents. We tend to live our day-to-day motions without worry or strife. Get up, eat, go to work/school, come home, enjoy your evenings, live your day. Repeat.

Twenty years have come and gone. In lieu of recent events, this one is stinging a little more then past years.

For those who lived it; we remember every minute and step taken that single day. The tragedy of the event which broke time and forever instilled footprints on our memories. Twenty years later…every move I made is like I just survived it again. Not to say other events in our history did not shake us to our core, but this one was in the gateway of America.

I was into my Junior Year at Western Michigan University (Go Broncos!). I had my Broadcast Productions class first am…and of course I woke up late. My sister and I were living in the student ghetto at the time and it was a good 20 minute ride to campus with parking. At the time, I never listened to the radio, and of course was jamming out to a mixed cd. I had no idea what was going on in New York. It was an average Tuesday, and yes, I was known for always waking up too late for class, it was a common occurrence.

Scalia was a Russian network always playing on the basement tv of Brown Hall. The tv always reminded me of Nightmare on Elm Street 3 (the hospital scene). It was fixed in a corner space in a long hall. Always playing Russian news casts, nothing in English. It played on continuous loops, like the only thing this station was known for was 24 hour news. Two random Russians speaking a language I would never know or understand.

That morning, when I looked up as I walked down the hall, something unexpected was playing on Scalia. Scalia was reciprocating the broadcast from America and New York. I witnessed and realized for the first time the impact and destruction of the first plane. I was stopped in horror watching one of the Twin Towers smoking from the first hit. I remember stopping in shock and not understanding what I was watching. For today’s youth and anyone that was younger than 14; television, radio and newspaper was the only way we received our news. This was before major smart phones and easily looking up on your cell phone what was going on. We didn’t receive a mass ‘amber alert’ what had happened. I learned from a Russian television station U.S. was under attack.

The moment of the impact, for Americans, our world stood still.

I sat in the auditorium, my professor changed his lessons plans and made this class something I never knew I needed. We broke our syllabus for the day and everyone in that 50 room space brought their words to life. So many angry; confused; and not understanding. When it was my time; my time to say anything...my statement at the moment in a class teaching me broadcast communications was, “How did Hollywood get it right?” Choking back my own fear and tears, “I didn’t feel like I was watching real life, I felt as if I was watching a movie.”

3,000 lives+ lost and the world stood still.

I called my Mom immediately after class because what else do you do? The next 20 minutes of that conversation turned into my worst fear. My cousin Joey, who worked at the World Trade Center, was unaccounted for. That was the second time I loss my grounding that day. Not only had the building fell, people lost their lives, but at 9 am, my mind was that I lost my cousin as well. Till this day, I will always apologize for breathing the hugest sigh of relief knowing she was away from work, running an errand and no where close to Ground Zero.

Campus closed by 10:30 that morning with all classes canceled. I rushed home to our house on Forest, ran up the stairs in our two story house, and I went into my sisters room and said, “We are at war wake up, they bombed us, and they used our own damn planes.” Jess was slowly waking up and didn’t grasp what I said. “Jess, get up, we’ve been attacked.”

We were both glued to the tv, watching replay on replay. Pentagon was hit; another plane crashed. We stood still that day waiting on anxious breath. What was next? Another downed plane, this time in PA where brave passengers overtook their death dealers refusing them the gratification of crashing into another American landmark. In my mind, I was worried about other major cities which could be hit. Was Kalamazoo, MI safe? Was Coloma, MI too close to Chicago if something happened. We feared the worse because we were living through the worse day of our lives and we didn’t know if it was over. For those of us who were lucky to lay our heads on our pillows that day, we didn’t know what that next day would bring.

The next day was the first day after the worst tragedy we lived through as an American at that time in our life. As we grieved, we continued to replay what we knew as facts and started building a strong protection. Homeland Security had us on Terror Level’s and those ruled our new way of life. America was under a Terror attack and there was a level of heightened distress. But what al-Qaeda did not expect is what came the next day from America. They expected us to crumble and admit defeat. "One of the most ‘cocky’ Countries in the world got what they deserved."

Sorry, but Fuck that!

What America did that next day was not lay down and admit defeat. We grieved, but we did not lay down. We became angry and strong. Not on our homeland; not our Country!

Our biggest contribution to our future is learning from our past. This isn’t meant to be political, and I do have my opinions regarding the changes we have seen in American not only the last 10 months, but the divide we have allowed to separate us. That’s not what this article is about.

Whether you have been directly impacted by the effects of 9/11 or if you only lived it from a separate State. Those lives are not forgotten and never will be. I will always choke back tears and have a hard time trying to understand the pure evil that occurred that day. Twenty years later and it still hurts. Twenty years later and I will always remember! We will never allow it to be forgotten.

#GodBlessAmerica