2001-09-11 6:20 p.m.

911

Wow. Sept. 11; 9-1-1. I'm supposing this day will be remembered for the rest of my life. My generation had been lucky so far, I guess, to not know what a national tragedy or emergency is like. I guess that makes this expirence surreal. I mean, today's just another day, right? I woke up this morning, took a shower, fell asleep during my 8am class, never having a clue what was going on out there. As I lay my head on the table fighting to stay awake, thousands of people were fighting for their lives, for a reason to make sense of what happened. All I could think about was how tired I was. How could I have not known what was happening? This morning seems so far away now; the fact that I was concerned only with what was happening in my life right then seems so far away.

I walked into one of the dorms this morning after class, planning on printing something out in their computer lab and then working on getting done all the things I needed to today. The TV was on in the lobby and what sounded like a movie was playing. Some distraught looking reporter seemed to be talking as if he didn�t know what to say and behind him was rubble, destruction, chaos. I honestly thought at first glance it was a movie. Too surreal for real life. I asked a guy sitting there, jokingly, �Is there actually something going on in the world, or is this just a movie?� Yeah, he said 2 planes had just crashed into the World Trade Center and another plane crashed into the Pentagon. I just stopped. It all sounded so matter-of-fact, so real that it couldn�t be real. I sat down and started watching the reports. The reporter apologized for using such melancholy language, but he said he honestly knew of no other way to describe the events that had taken place. They started showing clips of the towers when they fell. I swear I thought I was watching the movie Independence Day. Only when watching the movie, all that was simply models; this was real life, the real thing. We no longer have a World Trade Center. One of the best known buildings in the U.S. � just gone. Buildings like that just don�t cease to exist. But this one did.

I�ve been watching the news all day. My head is filled with all the information: who it could be, eyewitness reports, etc. It�s been called the Second Pearl Harbor and it seems many have ventured to say it is the single most violent terrorist attack ever in our nation�s history. I�ve heard that American life as we know it will never be the same. I guess we�ll see in the next few days. I hope people don�t go chaotic. Gas prices already jumped, like, $.10/gallon this afternoon. I only have half a tank of gas, I guess I�ll be walking if gas prices don�t go back down in the next few days. I wonder where life as we know it will go. I guess we�ll see what tomorrow brings.

It�s been a weird day. I guess we should all go about our business, do things normal so that life will indeed continue to go on normal. But, carrying on, in a way, feels wrong. All Americans have felt the blow and all Americans are affected by it. How can we just act like nothing�s happened when many of us are over there suffering?

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