Yesterday was the first post in a multi-post series on the 10th anniversary of September 11. I shared what I wrote as a college freshmen to the journal section of my own personal website (which is now thoroughly defunct). Just innocent typical concerns of a young college student in a quiet world.
Here is what I wrote on September 12, 2011. The Wednesday after the September 11 attacks. Again, no editing, just the words I wrote that day.
Wednesday, September 12, 2001
In response to yesterday's events I hope that everyone back home is ok and good and calm. Classes were canceled here in the afternoon and evening and most of us just hung out and watched the news reports. After a while a bunch of us needed something to get our minds off the tragedy so we rented some good funny movies.
It is a lot different experiencing something like this in college rather than in our little town of Derby/Angola. It seems that everyone here knew someone or has family there in New York. I am friends with a girl who has a mother and father who live in New York. Her mother worked in the World Trade Center and if she were 15 minutes earlier for work... she would have been dead. She is ok though. Her daughter was a wreck but she's doing well too. I thought about Heather, because if you don't already know, she is attending NYU. She too is ok. Just so everyone knows.
My grandmother even called me yesterday afternoon and mentioned how this resembles Pearl Harbor in her time. I can see the parallel here. For our generation this is the closest thing to Pearl Harbor we have lived through. We have witnessed the Oklahoma City Bombing, the World Trade Center Bombing and several Embassy bombings. These were cowardly acts of terrorism which were done for no better reason than to scare us. This tragedy though is much more. It is a coordinated effort in which targets were systematically determined. An economic center like the World Trade Center, a strategic military center like the Pentagon and possibly other targets which we don't yet know about. These targets were hit multiple times in the case of the WTC. Although our own transportation system was used against us and no conventional weapons of war were used, this attack was not merely a terrorist attack, but an act of war.
In the following weeks and months we will be finding those responsible for this act of war and I am confident that we will make them pay. As the land of liberty and freedom, we well certainly make sure that those responsible will not be capable of such an act again. If this requires a war... then we must face the future. It is too soon to tell yet. So, I pray for everyone at home, the victims, the relatives of victims and everyone in this nation to be strong and come together so we can face this. I urge you to do the same thing too and keep a positive attitude as we continue on from here.
In response to yesterday's events I hope that everyone back home is ok and good and calm. Classes were canceled here in the afternoon and evening and most of us just hung out and watched the news reports. After a while a bunch of us needed something to get our minds off the tragedy so we rented some good funny movies.
It is a lot different experiencing something like this in college rather than in our little town of Derby/Angola. It seems that everyone here knew someone or has family there in New York. I am friends with a girl who has a mother and father who live in New York. Her mother worked in the World Trade Center and if she were 15 minutes earlier for work... she would have been dead. She is ok though. Her daughter was a wreck but she's doing well too. I thought about Heather, because if you don't already know, she is attending NYU. She too is ok. Just so everyone knows.
My grandmother even called me yesterday afternoon and mentioned how this resembles Pearl Harbor in her time. I can see the parallel here. For our generation this is the closest thing to Pearl Harbor we have lived through. We have witnessed the Oklahoma City Bombing, the World Trade Center Bombing and several Embassy bombings. These were cowardly acts of terrorism which were done for no better reason than to scare us. This tragedy though is much more. It is a coordinated effort in which targets were systematically determined. An economic center like the World Trade Center, a strategic military center like the Pentagon and possibly other targets which we don't yet know about. These targets were hit multiple times in the case of the WTC. Although our own transportation system was used against us and no conventional weapons of war were used, this attack was not merely a terrorist attack, but an act of war.
In the following weeks and months we will be finding those responsible for this act of war and I am confident that we will make them pay. As the land of liberty and freedom, we well certainly make sure that those responsible will not be capable of such an act again. If this requires a war... then we must face the future. It is too soon to tell yet. So, I pray for everyone at home, the victims, the relatives of victims and everyone in this nation to be strong and come together so we can face this. I urge you to do the same thing too and keep a positive attitude as we continue on from here.
In a second entry dated September 21, 2001 when it became more apparent who perpetrated this attack against us, this is what I wrote.
Friday, September 21, 2001
Hi everyone. Well, it looks as if the United States is kind of going to war, I guess? It is a terrible thing that has to be done but we just have to come together as a nation and face this. There is no need to worry your selves about this. We are the world military super power. We will prevail over the evil that is responsible for this. Once again I want to urge everyone to say a prayer (or just think a minute if your are not religious) for the soldiers who will be shipped out and the victims and their families. Then maybe we will finally take those words in the pledge of allegiance more seriously than taking them for granted like we have for the past 12 years of reciting them in school.
I for one will never listen to the words of the Pledge or National anthem and feel the same way again.
...
I find it an astonishing coincidence that I just so happened to be writing a personal journal on a personal website at this point in history. It is amazing to me that I inadvertently captured the somber feeling of those days in writing.
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