What a day

Like everyone else today, I'm blogging about 9/11. Ten years ago when I heard the news I was a freshman at Borgia in Theology class. A kid named Tony showed up late for school (he was notorious for that) and mentioned that the WTC had been hit. I honestly had never heard of the World Trade Centers, so I didn't quit know exactly which building he meant. Since I didn't know, I thought it has something to do with Wall Street and was wondering what would happen to the stock markets if all
of those people died. My next class was my world history class with Tyree. I believe we had a quiz or some homework to hand in, but after we took care of that he told us "Well, I've decided that we are just
going to go to the cafeteria and watch the television. This is history and nothing I could teach you today is as important as what is going on right now." At some point, Rev Kev got on the PA system and
announced what was going on and said a prayer. I remember thinking to myself 'Wow, he is really good at coming up with prayers on the spot.' For some reason, hardly any (if any) TVs worked at that time in the classrooms, so we went to the cafeteria where another class was already. We watched the paranoia unfold and watched the towers fall. I remember that well because I remember the TV reporter cursing on air, and since everything was so frantic that day it didn't get bleeped; I doubt anyone cared that day.

I admit that at the time I didn't, and couldn't, fully comprehend the scale of this or how large its  significance. And also, to be completely honest, I don't know that it phased me too much, but most
things don't anyways it's just how I am. I didn't fully understand or have some sort of emotional connection until about 3 years ago when I watched a video on YouTube. This particular one, though I couldn't find it back the other day, was shot from someone's apartment. There were two women in the background and, I presume, a child because they had a kids program on the TV. The kids songs playing in the background from the TV added a really strange feeling to everything, as you would guess. I just remember this lady's reaction when the second plane hit, and then I actually started to cry. She wasn't overly dramatic or anything, it was just pure, utter disbelief. But what really hit me was when she started to notice people jumping from the buildings and she said "Oh my God. There... there are people... and they're jumping?" Anyways, after watching that I thought to myself "Ok, I get it now." Watching a completely stripped down, bare bones version of the events unfold without any commentary or crazy newscasters really had an impact on me. I also remember when the towers fell and from her apartment, she had an interesting view. Since she was higher up, you could just see everything billowing between the buildings and I will never forget the way it looked. It looked like the hounds of hell coming to get you, with hands of clouds of smoke and dust just grabbing away; it was so, so strange looking.

The other night I sought out this video again, but never found it. I did, however, find someone's seven-part video montage of the events, and I watched those. The person did a good job with the various
footage they had. Again, it was so interesting and just moving to watch it. The most striking was the fifth one, I believe, in which the first tower fell. Hearing the screams and panic was just... unbelievable. So if you are curious and want to see more of a first-person account of the attacks, then I would recommend with caution. It's not easy to watch, but it's definitely moving.