I built this page not only to remember the ones we've lost, but also to tell people how this unfortunate calamity has affected me.
"Where were you when..." events are numerous. Some examples might include the first man on the moon or the assassination of J.F.K. I was born in 1985, so I only have one "Where were you when..." event. Regrettably, it was the worst act of terrorism in the history of the world.
I was in the television studio of the school working on, of all things, a video project highlighting what makes America great. If that isn't irony, then I don't know what is! Anyway, one of the teachers walked in and told us that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. One of the other students used the song "God Bless America" in her project. It was playing when we turned on the television and saw black smoke bellowing out of the tower. The patriotic song made the disastrous event that much more surreal. It didn't occur to us that it could have been intentional until we saw the second plane pierce the heart of the other tower. We watched CNN for the rest of the period. Second period began at 9:30 a.m. All but 6 students were in another room taking an Indiana standardized test. Rather than have class without them, we decided to go to the school library and watch the news.
It wasn't the devastating episode itself, but the aftermath that really got to me. Anyone who knows me, knows that I have always been more than a little antisocial. I have several theories for why I'm that way. One of which is I have been burned so many times by so many people that I assumed all people were bad. Then, the whole world came together to mourn. Leo Laporte said it best, "This shows that it is not us versus the world, it is the world versus these terrorists."
Get ready 'cuz here comes some more irony. You would think that a large group of religious terrorists planning on brutally killing thousands of innocent people just because they were American would leave me with even less faith in the human race, but the fact that the entire planet is grieving over this terrible incident leads me to believe that maybe there is hope for mankind. This catastrophic disaster has truly changed me. Maybe I'll be more social from now on or maybe I won't, but one thing is for sure. For once, I can honestly say that I am proud to be an American. I am just sorry that it took a horrible tragedy like this to open my eyes.
