The morning of September 11, 2001 found me awoken by a call from my mother. I was living in Los Angeles at the time and I knew something was wrong because she was calling me from the east coast at 9 AM, meaning it was 6 AM my time.
Her voice was strange when I answered the phone. “Nate,” she said, “you need to turn on the news.” I don’t know what I was expecting at the time, but nothing could prepare me for what I saw.
Both buildings of the Trade Center had already been hit, and Matt Lauer and Katie Couric were discussing the possibilities of what had caused such a disaster to occur. As they were speaking the first tower fell in a billowing cloud of smoke, followed shortly by the second. I was completely dumbfounded.
The shock in the voices of both Couric and Lauer were no doubt being echoed in minds and hearts across the nation. As more information came to light about the other planes that had been hijacked, the range of emotions I was feeling at the time was unlike anything I had ever experienced. For all those in the towers and the passengers in the planes, my heart was breaking.
I tried constantly to call my best friend Emma who was attending NYU but all the lines were busy, as they continued to be for days and days. I was sure she was fine as there’d be no reason for her to be in the financial district, but my worry for her didn’t lessen until we spoke several days later.
The 24/7 news coverage was exhaustive. I was glued to the TV. Everything in Los Angeles shut down. No one knew what to expect in the coming days but I know that everyone was preparing for the worst if further attacks were made.
In the eight years since 9/11, I’ve never experienced anything similar to what happened that day. Even being across the country I felt such an intense connection to the events occuring, which was undoubtedly heightened by what I was hearing and seeing through the media coverage.
Now, as a New Yorker, I can only imagine what that day meant for the millions of people who were in the city at the time. I’ve been to Ground Zero on several occasions and my thoughts always go out to the victims and families of that fateful day…
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I had the same experience. On the day, I was trying to call my cousin who used to live in Manhattan. I wanted to contact him from Japan, so it took five days to finally talk to him.
ReplyDelete>>>>"Now, as a New Yorker, I can only imagine what that day meant for the millions of people who were in the city at the time."
I agree. When we were too far away from the source of the event, our imagination is very limited. But once we are there at the place where the event happened, we will be imagine a little better. I surely know that imagination maybe false and totally different from the actual event, but we will be able to have an idea of the event. I think this is one of the best benefits that we get from media to feel the world gets smaller, but actually seeing and hearing it and experiencing it is different.