Remembering 9-11
On September 11, 2001, I was getting ready for class in my room in LaGrange Hall at the University of North Alabama. It wasn’t even usual for me to turn the television on while getting ready for class, but that’s what I wound up doing that day. At first, I thought it was a disaster movie, then, realizing it felt shockingly real, I decided it must have been a horrible accident. When I realized it wasn’t an accident – well, it was hard to know what to think other than it was very sad and scary and I felt kind of numb. I went through the rest of the day in a daze.
My first teacher taught anyway, with only a single throwaway comment to the effect of “life goes on.” My second teacher, Dr. Jim Martin, said there was no way he was teaching class under the circumstances but that we were all welcome to stay and he would be there in case we wanted to be with other people. Later, my friends and I watched more on the televisions in the student center.
Here we are 23 years later. In some ways, it feels like yesterday, and in other ways, it feels like forever ago.
