Remembering September 11, 2001

It's been 14 years, but I still remember everything. It's one of those dates that you will always remember and you will always remember what you were doing the moment you heard the news.

I remember I was in the kitchen buttering toast and my grandmother (she lived in an in-law apartment) came in and said that my aunt had called her. My aunt works in the city (thankfully, she made it out of the city that day) and she told my grandmother that a plane had hit one of the Twin Towers.

So I went to let my mom know what had happened. My mom said it was probably just a small plane, but then I turned on the TV. I still remember saying, "Mom, I don't think it was a small plane."

From that moment, I was glued to the TV and the radio. I felt helpless, because I wanted to help. I wanted to do something. So I decided to go to school. I was going to Western Connecticut State University at the time and I was on the school paper, The Echo. I promised my mom I would call when I got to school and I left.

The ride to school was surreal. It felt...quiet. No honking horns or music blaring, just...quiet. When I walked into the Student Center, it was the same thing...quiet. People were gathered around different TVs in different rooms. There were people I had never seen before hanging out in The Echo office watching our TV to see what was happening.

I remember one of the students on the paper said her dad was part of a fire department in the area and he was headed to the city to help. We all wanted to do something to help, but we didn't know what to do. So we grabbed a camera and a pad and pencil and just wandered the campus.

We talked students and faculty about what was happening, and the reactions were still pretty raw. Nobody knew anything yet. We didn't know who had done this or why.

I remember, for a little while, there was this sense of unity in the country between everyone. It didn't matter what state you were from, what your political views were, what your religious views were, we were all Americans and we were all hurting.

Having that unity was the best thing we, as a country, could have done. I don't miss the awful feelings of that day, but I do miss that united feeling we had. Hoping it doesn't take another tragedy to make that happen.

It's been 14 years, but I still remember...

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