Seven years ago today I was a freshman at FWBBC. It was a Tuesday morning and I had Freshman Orientation at 8:00—SNORE! I’m sorry, but to this day I STILL consider it the most pointless class I had to pay for in college.
That morning I decided to sleep in and skip class. I needed to get over to the student center early to buy a book in the bookstore and check my mailbox. I didn’t have a 9:00 class, but chapel was at 10:00. I woke up a few minutes before 8 that morning and jumped in the shower. Like each morning, I turned on the radio while I was getting ready. I heard the local DJ’s talking about a plane crashing into a building…I didn’t hear which building. I immediately ran to my window to see if I could see smoke or anything coming from the downtown area, thinking they were talking about a situation here in Nashville. About that time I heard them say another plane crashed…into the World Trade Center. I was in shock. I sat on the edge of my bed and just listened for what felt like hours.
Soon I jumped up and started speeding through my getting ready process. Before I walked out of my room to go to the student center, I heard that a plane had hit the Pentagon. What was going on? I was freaking out on the inside while trying to remain calm on the outside. When I got to the student center, a projector had been set up in the auditorium with live television feed. We all sat there in stunned silence watching the twin towers burn. One friend sat to my right with his arm around my shoulder, while another sat in front of me reaching back to hold my hand. We were all in shock. Then, the south tower fell. I wanted to scream. Minutes later, the north tower fell as well. These two incredible symbols of capitalism had vanished and our country was changed forever.
My dad had just decided to go full time with the National Guard and was scheduled to be deployed to Bosnia two days later. I tried desperately to call him, but the cell phone lines were blocked. I finally reached him and he told me they were on lock down and he didn’t know what the plans were at that time.
My church, like so many others, held a prayer vigil that night. I didn’t have a car at the time, but a good friend offered me his car so I could go. I remember filling up his gas tank on the way home that night because we were all so sure that gas would be $6.00 a gallon by the next day. There was talk of reinstating the draft, and I remember being so scared for my friends and the guy I was dating at the time. I remember the eerie calm of NOT hearing any planes flying overhead, and then a few weeks later the disease of hearing them. We had a prayer vigil at school that night as well. We all cried together and prayed together.
I’m not trying to bring anyone down by writing this. I just don’t ever want to forget that day. The day that everything else stopped. There was no pettiness. Everything else seemed so small. All that mattered was how you could help your fellow man. I wish we still had that.
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