Zach Baker remembers the blur and surrealism of that morning.
By Zack Baker
210 west Writer [send email]
When I awoke on September 11, 2001, it was just like any other day. I
had a 9:30 a.m. Vietnam class [just about the only class I really loved]
and got up around an hour before. So many days before and after that, I
would get up just before the class and have to hurry to make it, but
this day was different.
A short time after I had woke up, I turned on the news [something I
rarely did] and saw Diane Sawyer reporting that one of the World Trade
Center Towers had been hit by a plane.
I assumed it had been an accident. The peace that I had lived in for
the previous 21 years had given me no reason to think otherwise. I
remembered hearing about a plane hitting the Empire State Building decades
ago, and that seemed like a passing event.
I had no idea what was to come.
I left and headed to my 9:30 class and was greeted in the building by a
large group of students huddled around a television. I don’t remember
it being silent, or being chaotic, I just remember a lot of people
asking questions, and others answering.
It was then that I heard that a second plane had hit the trade center.
I remembered feeling confusion, and went to my class.
Gary Hess was the instructor, and he informed us of the morning’s
events. Hess was brief, but now it was apparent this was a terrorist attack.
I have to be honest. I was sad but not worried or scared. I also
remember thinking, only for a second, that this was the result of America’s
meandering in other countries. I was angrier at America at that moment
than the terrorists.
But only for a second. This is a thought I am now ashamed to report
that I had.
I don’t remember much after that as far as the class was concerned. The
next memory was of walking into Chili’s and hearing that the Pentagon
had been attacked. Now I was scared. It felt as though this was a
countrywide assault, and any place in the country could be next.
For the first time in my life, I felt no security. The pictures I saw
on my television screen left me with sympathy. It felt like a bad dream,
and the more stories I heard from the television, the sadder and
insecure I felt.
When the towers collapsed, I was in shock, as I’m sure many others
were. I couldn’t even imagine how the families of workers felt. I imagined
the feeling of helplessness and terror that must have engulfed those in
New York and Washington. I felt those feelings too, but I knew that
what I felt was minimal compared to others on that day.
After talking to my family, I felt somewhat more secure, if still
saddened. The sky had been blue all day, but the surreal feeling of the day
was something I had never felt before.
The rest of the day is pretty much a blur. I went home three days
later, relieved to be with my family, and constantly filled with feelings of
sympathy and sadness that remain to this day.
All I know is that I will never forget it.