"Did you hear a plane crashed into the World Trade Center?" said my 10th grade classmate Eric Conzemius in the men's bathroom inside Maryville High School.
We were just leaving first period and in the "break" time before 2nd period began.
I thought to myself, I read the paper this morning (yes, I was that 10th grader who read the newspaper) and didn't see anything about it. He doesn't know what he is talking about I thought.
This was before Facebook, Twitter, and social media. And the internet was around, but not a super dominant force like it is now. So my mind went straight to the newspaper.
I walked down the 3rd floor hallway and crammed in with dozens of other students watching images of the World Trade Center towers on fire. Unbelievable. Literally.
We didn't know what to do. We were high schoolers.
The bell rang for everyone to go to their 2nd period class. As I sat in my English class the principal came on and delivered the sobering news of the hour. It was beyond shocking, it just was.
My mind raced back to the year before when my mom and I had walked on top of the World Trade Center tower on a tour. They were so high. They were majestic. They defined New York City and Manhattan. And then I watched on television as they crashed to the ground.
The images were like a movie. Firefighters and police officers covered in soot and smoke and ash. Darkness hanging over New York City. A plane hit the Pentagon, a plane was down in Pennsylvania, unconfirmed reports of bombs at the Sears Tower in Chicago, in Los Angeles, and elsewhere.
I remember walking the halls of the high school and every single room had their television on and scenes of 9/11 were racing through the sets.
The day at school finally ended and I went home to see my mom and brother and my Aunt Tracy who was in town. My dad was out of town--his plane grounded. The images of Manhattan, overcome with smoke were still filling our television.
I remember turning on the radio and the traffic reporter was giving updates. This guy was the most happy, jovial, excited traffic reporter ever. Every time he gave updates it was like the highlight of his life. So that is why it was so unnerving to hear him try with all his might to put a good voice on this, but fail to do so.
His words and his tone still echo in my head as he signed off...
"Try to have a good day everybody."
I won't ever forget it. It just stopped me for some reason. The truth was we just couldn't have a good day. It wasn't a good day, it was a terrible day, a tragic day.
And yet I remember how the fire of 9/11 gave way to the most "united" United States of America I had ever seen. President Bush rose to the meet the extraordinary demand of the time with soaring rhetoric and steely resolve. Whatever you think of him, he was everyone's President in those weeks after 9/11 and I will always associate him with how masterfully he led this country following the devastating attacks.
The baseball playoffs, especially the New York Yankees, the start of the football season, and other sporting events gave Americans cause for great unity and refuge. It was an unbelievable time, but a time where I saw the beauty and majesty of this country, of the people who make it up, and the ideals and values that we hold.
I was 15 years old on 9/11. I loved my country on 9/10, but I truly fell in love with my country in the weeks after 9/11.
Out of the ashes we rose.
So I pray for our leaders now, for our brave troops who carry on the battle for freedom in America's longest (and tragically forgotten) war in Afghanistan. I pray for even for our enemies, that they might become peacemakers themselves. And I pray for the world to come, that all (somehow and in someway) will be put right then.
So much has changed in the last 11 years. In some ways it feels as though Eric Conzemius was telling me a plane hit the World Trade Center just yesterday, and in some ways it feels as though it was a lifetime ago.
But no matter how old I get, I will always remember September 11, 2001. And I will always sing out our National Anthem with a little more conviction, a little more passion, and a lot more love for the people I share this great country with, for this beautiful place truly is...
The land of the free and the home of the brave.
