9/11/01

It's been almost 10 years. This must be what the JFK assassination was like for my parents. Now they have 2 events where they remember exactly where they were.

I remember exactly where I was. I was a junior in college at the University of Arizona . I was asleep in my dorm room in La Paz. It was dark. I had a later starting class -- a 6 unit German class. I had probably stayed up late the night before, and I was sleeping in as late as possible -- as per usual. When I am awakened from a deep sleep, I am always confused.

Shortly after 0700. The phone rang. My roommate and I ignored it. It must be a mistake, why was someone calling this early when both of us were asleep. A message wasn't left, but the phone rang again. I begrudgingly answered it to make it stop ringing. It was my mom. My mom was frantically calling from Hawai'i very early in the morning.
Mom: "Ashleigh, our government's under attack!"
Me: "Huh? Why is someone attacking Honolulu?" [I pictured a Pearl Harbor like attack on the State Capitol building in Honolulu.]
Mom: "Just turn on the TV!!!"
Me: "Why would Hawai'i be on the news?"
Mom: "Do it now!"

By this point my roommate is confused as to what's going on as I'm getting out of bed to turn on the 13" TV we had in the dorm and find a news station. We saw both towers. This is right after the 2nd tower was hit. We watched for a little bit then we turned off the TV and went back to bed for a few more hours. After we both woke up again for the second time, everything had transpired.

Should I have stayed up and watched TV? Probably. I had my mom asking me how I could've gone back to bed. But I did. I was a 20 year old college student -- basically carefree.

It was what was talked about. We were even allowed to have conversations about it in English during German class. I was relieved that O-chem lab wasn't canceled -- it would've been a hassle to try to make up. I also had the easiest O-chem test on 9/13. My professor blamed 9/11 for not being more creative with questions.

Living at the UofA campus, there was a strange silence after with the lack of planes flying to Davis-Monthan. It was even weirder when they started flying over campus again about 9/15 or so.

Little did I know that having traveled all over the world (getting back from Australia in August 2001) never worrying about plane travel that ever since my first trip on a plane after 9/11 in October 2001, I will always have a seed of thought about "what if..."