I was 15 years old. A
sophmore in high school. My friend Brian was actually driving then, we had a routine of going to seminary together and then off to school. Sophmores then couldn't get permits to park on campus. My gramma and grampa live right next to the school so we would always just park at their house and then just walk to school from there. That morning we had been let out of seminary a little early so I had some time before I needed to be in school. I stopped into my grandparents house to say hello. They always watch the news in the morning so naturally the "disaster" was on their television. BUT me being a naive little 15 year old stuck in my world of high school and boys just looked at the t.v. and though "huh...wonder why they are demolishing those big nice buildings." i grabbed some food and moved on to school not thinking much about anything. *
*I know seriously looking back on it - how stupid was I?!?**
Anyways...I got to school and noticed an unusual amount of chatter. I even remember someone coming up to me and asking "did you hear about the world trade center?" and I was like "uhh...sure?!?" trying to be smart...but I wasn't. STILL not thinking much about it I went on to 1st period. I dont remember what class it was..but we resumed class as normal. Then between 1st and 2nd period we had this sort of "breakfast break" instead of just giving us 5 minutes between classes we had a 15 minute break to grab breakfast. I followed my usual routine of grabbing a bagel and cream cheese. Then I noticed it. The crazy chatter, the crying, and then over the school speaker system came a radio broadcast of "The Event".
Then seriously all of a sudden I totally had one of those movie flashbacks. Rewinding in my head my morning. The images that I saw on t.v. came flooding back....
I was in NO mood to eat my bagel then. I headed to one of my favorite teachers rooms and demanded of him to know what was REALLY going on. He simply pointed me to the television and told me to sit down and watch.
I spent 2nd and 3rd period just sitting in his classroom watching.
Then lunch period rolled around and I went to sit with friends.
I was scared and sad and wasn't quite sure what to say or do. I felt like such a moron because it took me soooo long to actually figure out what had happened that morning.
I really dont remember much of the rest of the day...I think it all just kind of passed by like a blur. My mind was in one big fog.
Today on September 11th 2010. I spent my morning sitting around with my kids watching cartoons. I remember the sadness of that day...and I also remember the unity. No one had an unkind word to say, everyone felt the need to band together as fellow Americans.
Some people ask why God would let something like that happen...if he has ultimate power why not stop the killing of so many people.
Sometimes the Lord has to force people to their knees. Just like in The Book of Mormon times with the Nephites...they would prosper and forget the Lord their God and then something terrible would happen and THEN they would remember their Lord.
I'm not saying that the ONLY reason that 9/11 happened was because our Heavenly Father was trying to get us to Remember Him. ...but I think that's PART of it.
This day will forever live in history. Do you remember where you were?
