Remembering 9/11
Well, I've seen several posts and I suppose it's about time I stopped ignoring them.
Where was I? In school. I remember the rumors starting around, first they were saying one plane, then three, then five, and all sorts of places other kids were claiming that had been hit. I got to my teachers aide period to watch it all in horror on the TV in the classroom. I couldn't cry, even though I wanted to so bad.
Maryland is one of the biggest military states, and so close to New York and the capitol, so everything seemed like a likely target. Parents were pulling kids out of the school, and finally they sent everyone home barely three periods into the day. I remember walking around listening to everyone as I made my way to the bus, some gossiping, some just thinking about how cool it was to go home early, some anguishing over relatives there. I remember passing a girl surrounded by her friends just sobbing on the floor in front of the lockers, she had family that worked in the towers.
We listened to the radio on the bus ride home, and the words came that made my stomach in knots. Statewide emergency. Our governor had called a statewide emergency, and I knew what that meant; that national gaurd reserves were to be called to assist in evacuations and rescue missions. My mom had been called up for those before, when a hurricane came through Baltimore. I remember trying to find my voice to explain to Jason that there was a big possibility that mom wasn't home.
Blessedly, mom was home. She was called later to go to the pentagon, some work related stuff, working 12 hours on and 12 hours off for a couple of weeks there. We tried to get back to as normal as normal could be in our family, but as anyone knows, normal doesn't exist.
Where was I? In school. I remember the rumors starting around, first they were saying one plane, then three, then five, and all sorts of places other kids were claiming that had been hit. I got to my teachers aide period to watch it all in horror on the TV in the classroom. I couldn't cry, even though I wanted to so bad.
Maryland is one of the biggest military states, and so close to New York and the capitol, so everything seemed like a likely target. Parents were pulling kids out of the school, and finally they sent everyone home barely three periods into the day. I remember walking around listening to everyone as I made my way to the bus, some gossiping, some just thinking about how cool it was to go home early, some anguishing over relatives there. I remember passing a girl surrounded by her friends just sobbing on the floor in front of the lockers, she had family that worked in the towers.
We listened to the radio on the bus ride home, and the words came that made my stomach in knots. Statewide emergency. Our governor had called a statewide emergency, and I knew what that meant; that national gaurd reserves were to be called to assist in evacuations and rescue missions. My mom had been called up for those before, when a hurricane came through Baltimore. I remember trying to find my voice to explain to Jason that there was a big possibility that mom wasn't home.
Blessedly, mom was home. She was called later to go to the pentagon, some work related stuff, working 12 hours on and 12 hours off for a couple of weeks there. We tried to get back to as normal as normal could be in our family, but as anyone knows, normal doesn't exist.