Countdown to 30: Day 21

September 11, 2001 is a day that I will never be able to forget. It was the strangest day of my life, as I am sure it was for most people who were alive and old enough to remember the day. It started out just like any other with me hitting the snooze button a few times. I got out of bed early enough to turn on the TV for a few minutes before taking a shower. I turned the TV on to find a strange sight of one of the twin towers with smoke billowing out of the middle and a plane flying into the second tower. At first I wondered what new movie was being promoted on NBC’s Today Show. It was that surreal.

I do not remember if I had figured out it was really happening before getting in the shower, or if reality set in some time during my shower. What I do remember is getting out of the shower in time to see the next breaking story of a plane hitting the Pentagon. There was no denying at that point that some sort of attack was happening. I went to class only to find out my first class of the day was cancelled. I went to some friends’ apartment where we watched the towers fall and the crash site of the plane in Pennsylvania. I remember thinking as the first tower fell that there was no telling how many hundreds of people lost their lives before our eyes. Then there was an eerie feeling of knowing that the second tower was still standing, but probably not for long. I started out for my next class at some point, but found out on the way that it was cancelled and returned to the TV coverage. We all talked to family quite a bit that day.

The coverage was on almost every channel. It did not matter if it was a cable, network, syndicated, or channels in other languages, the images were shown over and over and over and over. The stories about those who had died started to be told. The coverage was overwhelming at times. I remember that at one point we had to search for something that was not about the tragedy, but after just a few minutes, we were curious again. On American TV, they were talking about people that had jumped from the buildings because of the heat, but they were not showing those people jumping. On one of our channel flipping trips, we stopped on Telemundo or some other Spanish speaking station only to see people jumping and falling to their death. It was horrible. Those images made me decide to spend the night with my friends and caused us to need to watch A Bug’s Life just to be able to sleep some that night. The same night, my brand new car got towed and we had to go get it the next day.

Looking back on 9/11 seems surreal even now. Baylor had military jets flying over it all the time because Baylor had students that were seen as potential targets because of their parents’ positions in the government. A somber mood in general was seen for several weeks. Patriotism was cool again, although that did not last long. Churches were full again, but that also did not last long. I think that the media has overplayed the event and that people were tired of it after a while. In some ways that caused people to become a bit desensitized to the event. Now there are movies and documentaries and books and news specials galore that talk about the event. It was a life changing day in many ways because it was then that I really learned that I cannot trust anyone with my security other than God. Governments and cities and nations are vulnerable to attack. If my security is based on governments or militaries or airport securities, I have no hope. I have to trust in God and Him alone for my security, realizing that no one can take the security of my salvation away from me even if they take my life.