Think Twice
It must have been the middle of the week before, maybe around Wednesday or Thursday. Wed had gotten the schedules for the cross country meets for the season. The first one was on the upcoming Tuesday. And I was not looking forward to it.
I just wasn't ready for it, mentally and physically. Sure, I had joined the team for the exercise and not to prove myself as a star runner. I did it to have fun and get in shape not to mention friends like Jimmy, Alejandro, and the Gallghers were on the team as well. Practices had been going well for the most part but I just wasn't ready for the first meet.
I remember talking with Alejandro and I think Jimmy about coming up with an excuse not to run the first meet. Like anything one doesn't like to do- the longer it gets put off the harder it is to do when you can't avoid it any longer. I knew I'd have to run a meet eventually but at the time I just didn't want my first one on Tuesday. There had to be an excuse I could come up with to avoid it. Anything, no matter how bogus and obvious it was I didn't want to run, no matter how much teasing I got from Charlie.
I remember the day before, Monday afternoon, running with Manny to the location where practice started. We were talking about the meet and I think he too wasn't in the mood to run it the next day. We joked about excuses to make up but by that point I knew I'd have to deal with it. Damn it.
I remember as Monday afternoon turned into early evening, how sunny and beautiful the day was, you could feel fall just around the corner.
Or something.
The next morning went on as any other morning, getting up, getting dressed, laying in bed again until the last minute, getting to school, talking with the guys, going to Econ. Then back to the main building since Econ was in a trailer, to Calculus. And getting through most of Calculus, if not in the last minute of the period when Kenny Hewitt came into the room.
And that's when going or not going to a cross country meet didn't matter as much as it had the afternoon before or much less the week before. Nothing that day mattered after news about the events in New York traveled through the classrooms of the two small hallways of my school.
Rumors alaso spread but regardless, school was cancelled and a lot of the student body and staff squeezed themsevles into the lounge area in the middle school area to watch the news on the big screen. They're the ones who saw the 2nd plane while the rest of the school tried to keep order and control the cars coming and out of the parking lot.
Getting to Virginia from Maryland, or back into DC or out of DC into VA or MD was the main priority at that point for there was talk of the bridges being closed. I don't think that ever actually ended up happening, but I'm not sure.
All I know is that within seconds life in this country, life in the world, had changed entirely. In short, the events of that Tuesday morning made me realie that sometimes the unexpected can lead you to think twice about everything in your life.
Remember.
I just wasn't ready for it, mentally and physically. Sure, I had joined the team for the exercise and not to prove myself as a star runner. I did it to have fun and get in shape not to mention friends like Jimmy, Alejandro, and the Gallghers were on the team as well. Practices had been going well for the most part but I just wasn't ready for the first meet.
I remember talking with Alejandro and I think Jimmy about coming up with an excuse not to run the first meet. Like anything one doesn't like to do- the longer it gets put off the harder it is to do when you can't avoid it any longer. I knew I'd have to run a meet eventually but at the time I just didn't want my first one on Tuesday. There had to be an excuse I could come up with to avoid it. Anything, no matter how bogus and obvious it was I didn't want to run, no matter how much teasing I got from Charlie.
I remember the day before, Monday afternoon, running with Manny to the location where practice started. We were talking about the meet and I think he too wasn't in the mood to run it the next day. We joked about excuses to make up but by that point I knew I'd have to deal with it. Damn it.
I remember as Monday afternoon turned into early evening, how sunny and beautiful the day was, you could feel fall just around the corner.
Or something.
The next morning went on as any other morning, getting up, getting dressed, laying in bed again until the last minute, getting to school, talking with the guys, going to Econ. Then back to the main building since Econ was in a trailer, to Calculus. And getting through most of Calculus, if not in the last minute of the period when Kenny Hewitt came into the room.
And that's when going or not going to a cross country meet didn't matter as much as it had the afternoon before or much less the week before. Nothing that day mattered after news about the events in New York traveled through the classrooms of the two small hallways of my school.
Rumors alaso spread but regardless, school was cancelled and a lot of the student body and staff squeezed themsevles into the lounge area in the middle school area to watch the news on the big screen. They're the ones who saw the 2nd plane while the rest of the school tried to keep order and control the cars coming and out of the parking lot.
Getting to Virginia from Maryland, or back into DC or out of DC into VA or MD was the main priority at that point for there was talk of the bridges being closed. I don't think that ever actually ended up happening, but I'm not sure.
All I know is that within seconds life in this country, life in the world, had changed entirely. In short, the events of that Tuesday morning made me realie that sometimes the unexpected can lead you to think twice about everything in your life.
Remember.