Eight Years Ago

Eight years ago, I was sitting in Church History, waiting for Dr. Eckman to come and start the class. Someone had already gone to the windows and made each of the three blinds a different level, because we all knew that Dr. Eckman hated that. At the beginning of his lecture, without missing a beat, he would casually wander over to the windows and make the blinds even.

My friend Sarah rushed in and plopped in the desk next to mine.

"I think I heard on the news that a plane just crashed into the World Trade Center," she said, breathlessly.

"What?!" I exclaimed. "That can't be right. Things like that don't happen." She just shrugged. Dr. Eckman came through the door just then, apologizing for his tardiness. He then briefly mentioned that a plane had indeed crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers and that we should all pray. He also apologized, because he had a meeting in Lincoln that morning, so he would have to leave and we would all be dismissed.

I had about an hour before chapel, so I went back to Dirks Lounge to see if the news had anything to say about what was going on. About six other students were already there, tuned into Fox News. By then the second plane had crashed into the second tower, and the anchors were replaying that footage slowly. As they switched back to the live feed of the towers looking like giant smokestacks I heard a gasp. It took me a minute, as I watched the first tower crumble to the ground, to realize that the gasp had come from the news anchors themselves. In that instant, I realized that what I was seeing was real, and had just happened.

I remember feeling lost. I was sad that Dr. Eckman was out of town that day, because I needed him to give us words of encouragement. I needed him, because mostly I needed my dad, who was 700 miles away at the time. I remember being keenly aware of the fact that no planes were flying in the sky that day, since they had all been grounded. I remember Dr. Blewett putting up a sign on campus saying that gas prices would be raised to $5.00 a gallon the next day, and feeling stuck because there was no way I was going to go get in line for gas that day.

That was eight years ago today.