9/11 from Wisconsin, 2001, by LEShea

From MemoryArchive

Who: LEShea
What: 9/11
When: 2001
Where: Wisconsin

I was in 8th grade at the time, and classes ground to a halt when we heard about it. Every television in the building was on CNN and we saw the explosions over and over again until we were saturated with images of smoking towers. As the day progressed, some of my teachers went on like it was any other day, and others wondered if we wanted to talk about it. The principal of my school announced that counselors were available, if we wanted to see them. I didn't, because the events seemed so remote. Sure, it was my country, even somewhere I'd seen, and later, I saw where the buildings used to be, but the event itself has taken on a strange quality - both real and unreal. I don't doubt that it happened, the same way I don't doubt the Holocaust or Pearl Harbor occurred. It is unreal to me in the sense that it's not personal. No one I know was killed or injured. No one close to me had a person close to them killed or injured. And I'm grateful for that, that the tragedy hasn't touched me intimately, like it has touched so many.

Just saying 9/11 can get peoples' attention, as I learned at a recent fast food job. A particular combination of sandwich, drink, and chips, came up to $9.11. Every time I would say that total, the customer would look up at me, shocked. None of them ever commented on it, and I would be relieved to announce their change: an entirely different number without the tragic connotations.