It was my first day of school at university ^_^ I went the day before for a couple of classes, however it was just to pick up the syllabus and discuss the marking scheme for the course. Tuesday was going to be my first REAL day of class. In preparation for the big day, I got up early and got ready. My bag was already full of books, pens, pencils, notebooks, calculators (Yes, I had two), and various material one needed to have a successful first day of university.
It was almost nine in the morning when the radio station played some forgettable Sheryl Crow song for the second time that day, when the song cut out. The radio announcer alerted that a plane flew into one of the buildings of the World Trade Center. Initially, I thought it was a Cessna plane. Cessna planes were always in the news at that time, and when they were in the news it was for silly things like that. I heard the announcer say "jumbo", but I was not listening. That would never happen...a jumbo jet into a building; that was silly...
Fifteen minutes later (?), they announced a second plane crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. At that moment, I realized something was wrong. I ran to the television, and turned the knob to see what was happening. I thought something was wrong with the screen, because there was a gaping hole right in the middle of the screen with smoke billowing from its center. I fixed my eyes, and discovered that was a building and not the television screen. I fixed my eyes again, and discovered I wasn't dreaming either.
Time stopped for about an hour as I watched the towers burn, mayhem ensuing on the streets, and the buildings collapsing in the streets of New York. Scenes like that were only in movies like Armageddon, I thought. Those things never happened in real life, but much to my surprise they did. Real life was coming at speeds I couldn't comprehend or control. I had enough when the top of the North Tower folded down, and sent the building plummeting to earth; I turned off the television, grabbed my things, and ran outside.
Above my head in the clear blue sky were planes of every sort flying towards the one airport in the area. It was almost as if everyone in the world shared the same shocking and bewildering dream, and were too frightened to do anything but accept what just occurred. The bus rides to school were silent save for the discussion and panic surrounding what will happen in the days and hours ahead. All I knew was the life I knew up to that moment was gone.
I can only look back to those days of the 1980s and 1990s as an age of innocence. Nothing back then mattered except having fun, and enjoying life as it came. Life didn't really come into focus, and 'believing in something', 'taking a stand', and 'courage' were only catch phrases to me. The problems of the world were not my concern, nor were they my problems. My innocence and childhood fantasies died on that day, and they would never return.
Every room with a television had channels and eyes fixed on the proceedings that day. I was in the North Building of the University of Toronto's Mississauga Campus with a handful of students watching Prime Minister Jean Chretien address the nation that afternoon, and no one in the three-hour English class that night wanted to talk books. I took the night time bus home and spotted the rest of the family huddled around the television watching in stony silence.
The world was never the same after that day; this is something children born after that day will never understand. I envy them, because they have the innocence, hopes, and dreams I once held up until September 10, 2001. Everything changed the following day, and reluctantly, so did I...
...Ten Years Ago
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