Thursday, August 26, 2010

Day 17: A photo that makes you sad

Depressing topic for today…It was actually kind of hard to figure out what to post for today, but this is what came to mind.  I always find it interesting to hear people’s stories of where they were of what they were doing during historical events.  And since this is the biggest historical event that I can actually remember during my lifetime, I will document it here.

I remember September 11, 2001 very well.  I was at BYU and I worked the early morning cleaning shift in the Smith Family Living Center (4am-7:30am).  I went to work as usual, scrubbed bathrooms all morning and was just checking out with the boss before leaving.  He had the radio on and told me to listen in the car on the way home.  The first tower had just been hit as I was headed home and I didn’t really understand the horror of it all from the radio, but I could tell it was something big.  When I got home I immediately turned on the TV and was glued to it the rest of the morning.  I remember my roommate came out to yell at me for having the TV on so early and when she saw what was happening quickly apologized and sat there in stunned silence with me.  The part I remember the most was watching the second tower get hit, live on TV.  My roommate and I looked at each other and wondered if that just really happened.  We watched the towers fall, heard the reports of people jumping out the windows, saw footage of people running down the streets, etc.  I’m sure you’ve seen the footage too, as it was played and replayed over and over.  But there was something especially frightening to see it happen live.  Later in the day when I had to go to class I saw that TV screens and projectors were set up all over campus with the news footage.  We couldn’t pull ourselves away from the TV’s.  We were all just waiting for something else to happen.  Even though I was so far away from the whole thing, this is a day I will never forget.  It is a day I will tell my kids about and my grandkids about.   

1 comment:

Justin and Lindsay Wilkin said...

Yay that was a HORRIBLE day!!! I had just moved to Atlanta from Connecticut. My empoloyers were from New York and still had their CT. cell numbers, so they lost reception. They were completely panicked trying to reach their loved ones in New York. I remember calling my mom and asking her about it. I guess you could say that I had lived a pretty safe and sheltered life up until then. I didn't even know what a terroist was. I couldn't understand why people would want to do such horrible, ugly acts to so many innocent people. :(