Where were you?...

Footage of the World Trade Center Crash on 9/11 from YouTube


On 9/11? I know where I was. I can still hear the words coming from the soft radio as I made my daily commute, a 40 minute drive, from Provo, Utah past the hill to Riverton where I taught 3rd grade year round. It was my first year teaching and I had been married for barely over a month. I was still basking in that just married glow when I heard the stark news "A plane has crashed into the first World Tower." I did not know what was going on. First of all, I grew up in California, never watching a lot of tv and knew very little about New York City or what it contained. I don't even know if I knew about the existance of the World Towers before 9/11. Now I do.


All I knew, early that morning on my way to work, was that something was wrong. I thought the news reporters on the radio air waves were joking. I thought it was a joke. America was so strong and secure that I didn't even think such a thing was possible, so to suggest that, they were surely joking.

I turned the radio off and drove the rest of the way in silence, wondering how someone could joke like that. It was when I walked into Southland Elementary School and saw the streaming tv footage that I knew it wasn't a joke. Someone had crashed their plane into the two world towers. Both of them. The second one happened while I had turned the radio off. I stared, along with the other teachers in the break room, at the tv. I saw the small, blurred figures streaming down, hitting the buildings, one after another, smoke billowing, ashes flying. And later, people jumping out of windows, people calling on their cellphones and saying goodbye to those they loved.

I was shocked. It was true. Someone had flown a plane into the two world towers. Not just one plane but two. America wasn't as invincible as I had thought. And now I had to teach. Let me rephrase that, I got to teach 25 third graders for the next seven hours. I don't know how I did it. I don't really remember. But I'm glad I was teaching. It was a comfort to my soul to be around such innocence and joy. I had to break the news to them. They were saddened and slightly afraid. I don't know how I made it through that day, but I did. All I remember is thinking "How could this have happened?"

"How did this even happen?"

Where were you? What did you think?


This is my blog and my name is Megan.

Comments