Gelie Beans and Sparkly Things: remembering 9/11

Sunday, September 11, 2011

me and michelle in NYC april 1999

i dropped my camera and exposed the film. i have a panoramic photo of just me, and the exposure is only over the towers. it's very eerie.

(via google images)

i remember it so vividly. i was 16 sitting in 11th grade bio (in mr. baacke's class) when i heard the news. a plane had hit the world trade center. i went to a pretty lax private school, so we flipped on the tv.. and watched in horror as the events of the day were beginning to unfold. i had a blue polo on and my red and white DC shoes i got from work. i remember where i was sitting in that room, and i remember the panic that overcame my body as i knew that i had family there. i ran to call home to make sure everyone was safe. (they were, thankfully).

(via google images)

we were released early. our school, and my home is minutes from NASA in Clear Lake, which was thought to be another target so they wanted us to be home with our families. i remember the drive with my then boyfriend. he lived on the other side of the lake and the drive through NASA was the fastest way home. i remember how desolate and empty it was driving through the campus. NASA had been evacuated as well. it was quiet, and scary.

(via google images)

i remember getting home and watching it on tv with my mom and being confused. i remember the sound of the drones, and other military planes watching over us.

and i remember thinking why? why were thousands of people innocently dying? and why was it happening at all. i kept all the newspapers, and magazine clippings in a taped-shut box in my closet. i still have it. (hopefully, it was there last time i was home!) i still can't read them. i still can't watch the specials on tv. im not ready, and don't know when i will be.

(via google images)

i am so thankful for all the brave men and women who became heroes that day. for the ordinary who stepped up and became extraordinary. for the soldiers that have and will fight for freedom in the land of the free and the home of the brave. my heart still aches for those who lost a loved one and for the children that will never know a parent.