FIVE YEARS AND ONE DAY LATER
I didn't say anything about 9/11 yesterday. I guess I just didn't feel like it with all the other commemorations going on. This is not to make light of the tragedy. Just stating a fact ... maybe I just didn't want to think about it.
I didn't know anyone that lost their life that day ... I didn't know anyone personally affected. However, the emotions of that day are still as vivid five years later. It was, and continues to be, a defining moment in my life.
I was standing in front of the third grade class that I was student teaching when a fourth grade teacher from down the hall came into our room, ashen and near tears, to talk with my cooperating teacher. I could sense the urgency ... emergency even ... in the situation. My cooperating teacher came up to me and whispered "America is under attack. I'm going to the office to see what is going on."
The phrase "weak in the knees" became all to real for me in that one moment, as they literally felt like they were turning to jello. I was absolutely terrified as, at that exact moment, the fighter jets from the local Air National Guard unit flew over the school. I don't know if they were doing their normal air flight training runs, or if they had specifically been called to protect our little part of air space, but I was scared to death. On that day, uncertainity became an every day reality.
Life has moved on, but there is always a cloud looming ... a what if, if you will. The secure life I'd lived prior to 9/11 isn't a reality any more ... not that it ever was as was proved on that September day.
I will never forget ...
I didn't know anyone that lost their life that day ... I didn't know anyone personally affected. However, the emotions of that day are still as vivid five years later. It was, and continues to be, a defining moment in my life.
I was standing in front of the third grade class that I was student teaching when a fourth grade teacher from down the hall came into our room, ashen and near tears, to talk with my cooperating teacher. I could sense the urgency ... emergency even ... in the situation. My cooperating teacher came up to me and whispered "America is under attack. I'm going to the office to see what is going on."
The phrase "weak in the knees" became all to real for me in that one moment, as they literally felt like they were turning to jello. I was absolutely terrified as, at that exact moment, the fighter jets from the local Air National Guard unit flew over the school. I don't know if they were doing their normal air flight training runs, or if they had specifically been called to protect our little part of air space, but I was scared to death. On that day, uncertainity became an every day reality.
Life has moved on, but there is always a cloud looming ... a what if, if you will. The secure life I'd lived prior to 9/11 isn't a reality any more ... not that it ever was as was proved on that September day.
I will never forget ...
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