On this day 15 years ago, I was a freshman college student eager to see what my post high school experience would bring me. It was a little after 10 o’clock am and I had planned to sleep in that day, because I strategically rearranged my schedule to not have any classes on Tuesdays. To my surprise, I would be awaken by the Dean of the Bronson Hall Annex that residents from New York, New Jersey, Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania needed to meet him in the activities/rec room as soon as possible. What was going on? The tone of his voice serious, yet his concern forced me to get up and see what the urgency was. As I entered the hallway I observed confused faces and chatter about the towers, but I could not make the connection. As I entered the downstairs area, reality hit and the RA asked, “young man where are you from” and I stated, “New Jersey”. He then stated a plane just struck the Twin Towers and things are chaos in those areas. He said anxiously, “please call home and make sure that your loved ones are safe”. My thoughts were all over the place from panic to emotional, because I knew the outcome would not be good. I left my family to make a positive impact on the world and only four weeks in I was living a grim reality about life in the United States.
I quickly ran back to my dorm and dialed my mother, but all the phone did was ring, ring, ring, and wait there was no option to leave a voice message. My panic turned into anxiety, because I had never experienced my mother’s phone just ringing. She would usually pick up the on the first or second ring….oh no something isn’t right! I repeated the process and still no answer. I calmed myself and turned on the television to the words {terrorist attack} flashing across the screen and I picked the phone up and called again…nothing. Seconds into minutes and hours feeling like days; BCC students of the Northeast region of the country were left waiting to hear just a voice from home saying everything is alright, but little did we know it wasn’t. The stories of the attacks were on every campus television and students clutching on to cell phones as if their lives depended on it; constantly checking to see if a message or alert would tell them that all was well.
Phone calls finally answered and parents calling the campus to ensure that their babies (now adults) were safe. We were more concerned about our families than ever before. This was a life lesson of it could all be over in a minute and for some it was.
Safe, but not quite. We learned that our school was going to be on locked down and campus ids were to be used to enter and exit all campus buildings. Entrances to the campus blocked off with police officers and the massive road blocks scared the campus of young adults into a union of security that we would get through this together. Walking in groups and trying to make light of a heavy situation, we asked, “why the heightened sense of security” being that we were a long way from where Terrorism was happening. We failed to realize that Daytona Beach was home to a University were students went to learn how to fly, guide, and control aircraft and one of the accomplices was said to have attended the school. The threat was high and all I remember is staying put in my dorm, with a strong supply of Pringles, noodles, Capri suns, and P&B sandwiches. I had my first lesson on terrorism and how a strong nation can be taken down within minutes. This would be my reality for the following 15 years and that initial feeling never goes away.
There has been numerous terror attacks and hundreds of lives lost since 9/11/2001 and their occurrences seem to be a uncontrolled nightmare. One that just doesn’t go away; one we call reoccurring. Small details change, but the fear always the same. As a young freshmen I knew that all would be well and the U.S. of A would come back stronger than ever, but we appear to be just as weak as that moment on 9/11/2001. We still live in the fear and devastation of that day and our minds as cloudy as the streets of New York following the attacks. We are fighting for peace, but it seems as though war is what plagues us. When will terrorism end and the powerful nation of the brave be restored?
The moments of 9/11 will never go away and the memories of that day forever craved in my personal time capsule. We must remember that lives were taken out of malice and a country strong weakened by dismay, but together we share this day, so that we can embrace each other to fight on has humans and push forward toward equality, justice for all, and the ending of terrorism abroad and in our own backyards.
Just think this could have been your last conversation to your loved one. We were lucky, but many were not. Together we are American, but we are so far from one nation under God.
Always remember!
Mood: Still remembering.
SayWhatNOW?!?! 