This is my 9-11 story.
In September 2001, I had just gotten a job working at the University of Houston doing web development. As a temporary thing, they put me at a desk in a computer lab, which was annoying because I was constantly asked questions and expected to fill the printer with paper, even though that wasn’t my job. That morning, the lab monitor was coming over every minute or so and asking me how to spell things. A little before 9, a guy came in and asked, “Do you guys have a TV or something? A plane just hit the World Trade Center.” I didn’t really believe him, so I tried to check it out online. All of the news sites were down, so I immediately figured out that something going on. After a long time of trying, I finally got CNN’s site to load. It was a blank page with a small, single image of the second plane hitting the towers. The whole time the lab monitor was asking me how to spell this and that. I stopped answering her. A little bit after that, I finally got a streaming news report to load and heard the full story. Just outside the building there was a breezeway where a cart was set up to sell food and drinks. They had a radio on. A large group of people was just standing there, staring at nothing and not say anything, listening to the radio reports. We were all just listening, not really knowing what to say or what to do.
The instructors had been told not to say anything about what had happened, and most didn’t, although some acted kind of crazy, while others attempted to talk about it. The next day I went into a class, and the instructor, right at the start, said “Could we have a moment of silence for those killed yesterday?” Aside from the sniffs and crying, it was silent for over a full minute. Then he proceeded to go on with class as normal. That was a really powerful moment.
Tags: 9-11
