story2390.xml

story2390.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

It was any day, school had been going to the point where days blend together, nothing really seperating one day from the next. The monotony drones on, most of the time the date isn't even remembered until the first test requires it. It was my brother's 12th birthday, so I was already conscious of the day. After second hour, my friends and I went out to the hall to laugh and make small innuendos and laugh somemore, completely unaware of what was happening. I remember those last moments before the world changed. It was the last moment of innocence, the last time I ever thought it was going to be okay because this is America, bad shit doesn't happen here. Planes are hijacked from India, hostages get held in Iran, but in America the only terrosists I had ever had to fear up to that point wher homegrown disgruntled army boys. Too young to recall the World Trade Center bombing, I just remembered how we went into Iraq when I was in kindergarten, and "beat the bad man in the desert".
We walked in to the room, expecting to engage in routine notetaking. Instead, we were greeted by the TV in the corner showing the World Trade Center on fire. My instantanous thought was that it had to be a movie. Within the same thought I knew it wasn't. some one told me two planes hit the Trade Center and one hit the pentagon and another hit the white house and there's one hijacked one flying around. Every bit of air was sucked out, and I felt overwhelmingly numb. One kid laughed and said "Too bad for all the stockbrokers!" Next to me my friend said, "This isn't funny! Do you know how many people work there? Lots of people are dying!" By now everyone was back from break, and with that comment the room fell silent. We sat in our seats or stood where we were and watched the TV. Facts were confirmed, others discounted.
We saw the first tower fall and a shudder of disbelieve went through the room. I couldn't breathe anymore. It just crumbled. The second one too. We watched CBS because or teacher said Jennings would tell us if suspicions were confirmed or not.
The next hour the halls were silent somber. Some kids were afraid they might hit Okemos, which everyone else laughed at. At that point, we all "knew" it was Bin Laden, but we didn't know. We thought there might be a war, that there would be a draft. That was the scariest, in a way. I was a sophomore but I knew senoirs and they were 18, old enough. If it lasted long enough, we would be old enough. We waited all day to know if anything else was going to happen. We didn't do anything in any of my classes except Statistics. We just talked and watched the same footage, the people jumping and the falling sending the same sick feeling through me each time. I never became numb to that.
That night we went to Bill Knapp's for my brother's birthday and it was on in the corner. Everyone referred to it as "that thing" no one said 9-11 yet. We sang and ate cake but it was all somberly I felt bad for the kid. He's now like one of those. Everyone was talking about Pearl Harbor, but this was worse. Every one was talking about firemen and cops. Everyone was talking about war and Bush and Iraq and Bin Laden. But by the end of the I had heard one joke about it. What did Bush say when he called Gore today? How about a recount.