Never Forgotten.

A popular comedy routine (easily found on youtube) jokes that women tend to remember everything because their brains are driven by emotion.  If you take an event, and you connect it to an emotion, it burns in your memory and you can remember it forever.  (It's worth mentioning that the same thing happens for men - just not very often - because quite frankly, we just don't care, lol).  There's a good number of amusing observations that follow as well, fyi.  But that's not what I'm here to discuss.

So given the emotional impact, it goes without saying that everyone in this country (who wasn't still potty-training) will remember where they were on the fatefully tragic morning of September 11, 2001.  And while a 10 year anniversary is practically no different than the 8th, 9th, 11th, etc... we find it sentimental enough to reserve a little more time and solemnity this year for those who lost their lives. And we'll reflect on how this event has shaped so much in the past decade.

I don't often waste time with following posting trends on facebook, let alone contribute to them.  But a journal entry retelling my own ironic story is worth sharing.

After rollerblading to my 8AM class on a clear and sunny morning at Purdue University, I was awake long enough at the beginning of it to remember Professor Andrisani asking everyone what Aviation news they might have for the class that morning.  Mind you, this is AAE190... our intro to Aerospace Engineering class where obviously many students have extensive interest in aviation topics.  One student raised his hand to share that right before class, he heard a plane had hit one of the World Trade center buildings. (We were on central time, so it was +15min from the first impact) This sparked a discussion on how little damage an aircraft could typically do to a skyscraper, and I think I even shared my own input on how a B-25 had crashed into the Empire State Building during WWII and done relatively little structural damage... while the bomber of course wasn't as lucky.  Speculation was left off with the dismissal that it was probably nothing more than a single engine Cessna with a suicidal pilot.  The rest of lecture I don't remember, because I was half asleep.  Needless to say, everyone left class that day without any further concern.

Drowsily walking out of the Wetherill building, I refrained from putting on my rollerblades so I could check out IR (Industrial Roundtable - Purdue's huge job fair) on the Purdue Mall.  As I crossed the street, I found it odd that right outside the employer booths there was a gold Cadillac parked on the lawn, unattended, with its windows open and radio blaring.  Everyone else was too busy going to/from class or interviewing to stop and listen, apparently.  I wasn't in a rush, but it didn't take long to gather from the radio broadcast that an aircraft had crashed into a World Trade Center tower, and that it was much more grave a situation than our naive class speculation had let on.  Accounts of people jumping from windows tends to catch your attention.

I needed to get to a TV at this point, so it didn't take long on my blades to reach my room in Harrison Hall and watch, dumbfounded, like everyone else. 

I knew I was watching something historic, but the scope of the situation to our lives and those directly affected couldn't possibly be grasped yet.  Being in Indiana, it was obvious from accounts back home and from friends in SUNY schools that reactions were understandably much more serious there.  Many people back in NY had family and friends in NYC at the time, so the panicked concern for those they hadn't heard from yet was mostly missing at Purdue.  In the coming days, our particular local concern was mainly with the Muslim student population.  Purdue had the largest number of international students in the USA, so there were a few emotionally charged reactions against them on campus, and some tension.  But on the whole, it seemed like everyone felt like they were in this together.  The 5000 student candlelight vigil at Slayter Center was especially moving.

I'm not one to jump on the hyper-patriotic bandwagon, but such an event should serve to remind us all just how lucky we all are as Americans, living comfortably with such wealth and security.  So many people in this world live daily lives without the assurances we take for granted.  And while I don't always support the specific decisions of our leaders in pursuit of our security, we should all give thanks to those who put their lives on the line to defend what so many have died for.

The heroes and victims of 9/11 were taken from us as a result of a terrible evil.  But we always have a choice in how we remember, honor, and give purpose to our response considering what we've learned from that day.  I have a feeling we haven't yet learned everything we're meant to, 10 years later.

P.S. how did I graduate High School over a decade ago... now that's not cool.  Almost as uncool as the 90s being 2 decades ago.  Pretty sure my head is more than just musically stuck in that era, lol.

ciaofornow :)