9/11 Flashback

It's technically September 12th in Beijing right now, but I know it'll still be Friday when people read this post. On a normal day I'd be looking for some sort of awkward topic to post, or talk about some lingering culture shock, despite being in this country for 2 years now. But since most of the people reading this post will be reading it on September 11th, it's only fitting that I talk about where I was that day. There are some things about that day that are surprisingly vivid.

~~~~~~~~~~~~FLASHBACK~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was 8th grade. My second class of the day was Choir. I was in the choir with the guys. I don't remember what song we were working on when another teacher suddenly burst into the room, talking in a surprisingly low voice and waving his arms everywhere. No one could hear what they were talking about, but we got some glares from the two teachers when the chatter started up between all of us, students. One of my friends and I still argue about which teacher it was that walked in. I said it was the Geography teacher, while he said it was the History teacher. After he left, we turned on the TV.

There are two times in my life where something stunned a whole class into silence. The second was in Senior Year. The first was that very moment we turned on the TV. For about five to ten minutes we watched the TV. We saw the second plane hit the tower, and we saw the smoke raising from both buildings. I remember thinking this was one realistic TV show, not realizing it wasn't fake. I didn't realize how real this was until my choir teacher turned off the TV, shook his head, and simply said, "Wow." Then we kept rehearsing our choir songs.

To this day, I question why my teacher turned off the TV and simply had us continue with the class. One of my friends said that the teacher didn't care. I personally found that hard to believe. Maybe the teacher expected us to thin whatever was happening in New York City at the time was going to happen to us at any minute. Maybe he thought going through the class and giving us something to distract us from what was happening was better than trying to supervise a class of freaked out 13-year-olds. Whatever it was, it's hard to say if it was a good move or not.

After class, I ran into my epic friend, and she asked me if I saw the news. Everyone had. The whole school was talking about it by the end of class. We kept seeing the same images of people covered in white dust guiding people away from the site. After lunch, it was common knowledge that a plane hit the Pentagon, and another plane crashed in a field. Rumors spread around that school was going to be cancelled. And that we were the next target. In English class, a boy passed a note to me telling me how scared he was. I quickly wrote back, "Don't worry. We're in Houghton Lake. There's no reason for anyone to come here." At lunch, the principal announced that no, school would not be cancelled, and we'd continue the day.

When my mom and stepdad came home from work, we all gathered in front of my mom's TV. My mom, stepdad, sister, brother, step-brother, and me. We watched continuing footage. The whole country shut down. Even the Disney parks were closed. It was one of those few moments where everyone sat around the TV. For once, my mom wasn't loudly shushing someone for asking a question.

~~~~~~~~~A FEW DAYS AGO~~~~~~~~~~~

Recently, I'd seen a facebook post claiming that 9/11 didn't happen. One in particular showed a picture from 9/11 claiming that it was . All I can do is challenge them to go to New York themselves. I was there in 2007, and there was no sign of any Twin Towers. We'd be hearing about it if there were. Dwight D. Eisenhower once ordered the Army to take tons of pictures of Concentration camps in World War II because there would be people claiming the Holocaust didn't happen. It reminds me of that.

If there's anything to point out about that day, I believe it's part of the reason my generation has become so informed. With this event, and the events that followed, it's made us want to find out the information for ourselves instead of trusting one source. That's an interesting side effect of that day.