Where I Was

And Glenn has inspired me. I barely knew what blogs were back seven years ago today, as a young pup still in undergrad at good ol' U of Maryland.

September 11, 2001 was a beautiful morning in College Park, MD, I had an early class in the English building all the way across campus, and I wasn't in the habit of catching any news before I went out for the day, so the first thing I heard was as my class ended, the professor mentioned that a plane had crashed in New York. That was my only class until that afternoon, so I began the trek back across the gorgeous UMD campus to my apartment off Route 1. As I reached the quad, there was a large group of students gathered around someone's radio by the narrow pool that stretched from one end of the quad to the other. They were listening to reports from New York, and by this point the second plane had hit. It was still uncertain what had actually happened, but it was becoming apparent that this wasn't an accident. A few students were crying, many were on their cell phones, probably trying to reach friends or relatives in New York. I stood there for about an hour as the crowd got larger and larger, all listening quietly to this one small radio, as rumors began to circulate through the group about terrorists and other planes.

Classes were canceled for the rest of that day, and for the next day, and the one after that. Maryland has a substantial group of students hailing from New York and New Jersey, and many many people's lives at my school were directly affected by the attack. I attended a memorial service in the days following in the same spot on the quad, by that point planes had begun flying again, but each time one appeared overhead, every single person's head in the crowd lifted upwards, looking for anything that would indicate that something might be wrong.

I might post again later this morning on this, if I have time, but if I keep thinking about it right now I'll probably get way too upset/angry.