I don’t consider myself old, but I did just turn 34. Given that today is September 11th, that means the original 9/11 is almost the midpoint of my life so far. It was also a Tuesday, just like today.
9/11 is the most distinct memory I have of a single day in high school, and I think it’s the last shared memory that most Americans have. Shared memories like that are usually bad (I think JFK might have been the first such event). But, they bond people together in ways that aren’t possible otherwise. I can reminisce with someone about where they were when 9/11 happened, and it places all our lives on a time map. I was a senior in high school, you might have been in middle school or college.
Because I was homeschooled, I was at home when Dad called to tell us to turn on the TV. I feel like I remember seeing the second plane hit, but it may just be because I’ve saw the replay so many times that morning. I sat there semi-numb watching the events continue to unfold. I do remember watching the towers collapse, and then not knowing how life might change, I got up and left.
I drove to Best Buy, partially because I didn’t know what else to do, and partially because back then albums came out on Tuesday. The new P.O.D. had dropped, and I had been waiting for it for a while. In a way, it was the most anti-terrorist thing I could do. While the hijackers had wanted to cause fear and attack the American way of life, I was out supporting capitalism and the arts. It also meant I saw the footage of flaming towers on every TV Best Buy had available (this was before it was a showroom for Amazon).
Later in the day, it was still business as usual, but shot in gray scale. The sun was out, but emotions were partly cloudy. I went to the worship leading class I was taking. Although I was homeschooled, one did so under a private school covering. I don’t particularly remember what we talked about in class, but I do remember getting in my first car wreck in the parking lot after school. It was “technically” my fault because I was backing out a parking spot, but it was really the mom’s fault for speeding in a school zone and not paying attention. But, I think we were all a bit distracted that day. Earlier in that year, I had gone to Spain with this same private school. But flying domestic, much less abroad, wouldn’t be the same for quite a while.
Students in my senior and junior Bible classes asked where I was on 9/11. I retold some of this, but even the students that were alive when it happened can’t have memories of it. Some of the juniors might have just been born, but none of the freshman were. They all live in a post 9/11 world, but they have no context for what that even means. I suppose it simply means that they live in a world where the possibility of a terrorist attack is a live option in a way that it wasn’t when I was in high school, at least until my senior year.
While I don’t think it changed the course of my life in the long run, it is perhaps ironic that now 17 years later, I started this September 11th teaching a worship leading class at a private school much like the one in Tennessee. The idea of course came from that original, and the teacher, Mr. Causey, also taught Bible like I do as well. He also coached the basketball team I played on, and later this week I’m playing in a fundraiser game with other teachers taking on our school’s current team. It will be the first semi-formal game I’ve played in a high school gym since the last game I played in high school, roughly 17 years ago.
Life goes on, but we don’t forget. Things change, but somehow stay kind of the same. I don’t consider myself old, but I guess I’m getting there, one class of life at a time.