September 11, 2001
I sat down in my advisor's office this morning and whined about the profile he was trying to force on me for my assignment.
After I got out, I sat down in the office to relax and gather my thoughts before I started making calls. Someone came running up the stairs and turned on the TV.
We watched as they showed the plane crash into the side of the south tower at the World Trade Center in slow motion.
Then we watched as the first that tower fell, then the other tower, which had been hit by a plane earlier fell.
We watched the reports of fires and plane crashing at the Pentagon and Washington Mall in D.C.
A girl left crying when she got a call on her cell phone. From our end, her cousin was in one of the towers. She left the room silent as she dashed out.
It was not an easy day. I know people who are affected. I worry about my aunt living an Arab country. I worry about the state of the country, about the state of the airports with all the flights coming here. I worry about who did this and why.
And what they might do next.
People will have theories at times like this. I'm going to wait until tomorrow at least. I'm going to think about Matt and how much I'd like to be with him, just to curl up together and talk. It would help my shellshock.
Just being in the journalism school was hard. Watching my professors getting upset and standing there with their jaws gaping. I know I'm an adult, but these people are supposed to be my mentors. And they are in so many ways. It's just hard to even think about them standing there looking just as upset and as shellshocked as the rest of us.
I was sitting next to the person I'm closest to in the class, just touching. It was good. It was comforting. We were there together, and that was important in the face of watching the footage of the second plane crashing and of both towers crashing down.
I watched an implosion once. It was a twenty-five story multi-level building and that from up close was unbelievable. I can't imagine what an uncontrolled collapse like that would be like. Everyone keeps saying it's like watching a bad movie. It is. It still doesn't feel real. Forget the John Fogerty song. I'm still not sure I can believe what I saw on TV.
© lily keller 2001
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