7:35 am the shuttle to school came to the stop and I got on. It was a large van and had several stops. Not long after I got on, the shuttle was full and would head straight for campus without stopping. Being that it's 7:30 in the morning, no one is ever chatty. But something was off this morning. It was as if there was a lack of pressure in the van, as if the air had been sucked out. It was then that I realized the radio was on a bit louder than normal and everyone was listening. It wasn't music, and it wasn't NPR (although it might have been, but it wasn't the usual talk show). A plane had hit one of the towers in NYC. Are we under attack? We don't know. But we might be.
I got to my first class and it's chemistry. Our high energy instructor was through the roof that day! She ran around passing out our usual pop quiz sheets and said "Just put your name on it and hand it in! Everyone gets a pass today." As soon as we wrote our names down and handed it in, we were free to go. Where? And do what? My table neighbor said we were under attack and they were coming here to our campus. Our school sits on a former military base, and part of the base was still active. As we "went about our day" military rolled through our campus all day on alert, and were on red. Red is bad. [After many months, we went orange, and I think we were on orange for the rest of the time I was there]
After leaving chemistry, I went straight to the student center. So did everyone else. In all the dorms, and centers across campus, students gathered around the T.V.'s and watched in horror as 2 of the tallest buildings burned.... and then crashed into ruble. And we watched in terror as hundreds of people ran for their lives to escape the dust clouds that overtook the city. And then a plane crashed into the Pentagon! And then the brave passengers said "No more!" and drove another plane into the ground to save lives in another building.
Would these terrorists come to San Fransisco? Would they be targeting military bases? All day, the students (myself included) walked around in a daze. Shocked that we could be attacked on our own soil! How dare anyone ever think they can do that and get away with it! And watching the mobilized tanks and armed hummers roll through our campus every day for weeks added to the fear of being at a school on a military base (and yet, what safer place could we be?).
I vividly remember getting on the shuttle, being in class for a moment while my professor tried to keep it together, watching the T.V. in the student center, watching the armed military police roll through campus. But I can't say I remember the moment the towers fell. Or when the last 2 planes crashed. In the days that followed, there were videos shot by regular people that began to surface and I remember watching those on T.V. Very few at first. Then in the following weeks, more began to appear. So I can't remember my very first witness to the day that changed us forever. But I will never forget what I do remember.
If you haven't read it yet, I recommend "Thunder Dog: The True Story of a Blind Man, His Guide Dog, and the Triumph of Trust." It's an autobiography written by a man who was in one of the twin towers, and how his guide dog helped get him and others to safety! We watched from the outside...he was on the inside.
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