9/11....10yrs later

Kellie

- I was a junior in college and by the time I was a junior I learned to schedule my college classes in the afternoon, so I could sleep in every morning. I was living on the 9th floor of Cone Hall, which is the Chi Omega floor at UNCG. My roommate (Kim McCall ) and I were sleeping when we were woken up by all of our soriety sisters making so much noise in the hallway. At first, I thought it was a fight going on, so we hopped out of bed and investigated. Everyone was gathered in the Chapter Room watching TV. I think by then the 2nd plane already hit and we were watching the replay of it.

I stood there in disconnected state having a hard time realizing what was going on and I had no clue how this would effect me and my country in the future. For most of the morning, I sat in the Chapter Room with my Chi Omega sisters watching the TV until it was time to go to class. I was debating on skipping, but I was not doing well in this Information Systems class and thought I better go. I went...and it was the wrong choice, because no one was there and the professor must have been in a tunnel all morning because he taught like nothing happened. I spent the rest of the day with my TS friends watching the TV at their dorm talking about the situation.

 I don't know if my mind automatically disconnects me from the situation and emotion to protect me from the pain of the tragedy, because to this day I still have that feeling of disbelief and disconnect that I had the first time watching it on TV. I know 9/11 happened because I have watched it many times on TV but I have a hard time wrapping my emotions around it. I feel like this makes me a bad person.

Brad

- I was a senior in college at BYU when it happened.  I had a mid-morning class at the metal building called B-66.  I walked in and the projector screen was down showing the footage of what had happened.  My first thought was that this was a terrible tragedy that happened far away to people I did not know.  I noticed a few of my angry classmates who had soaked in the news moreso than I.  At that moment, the buildings had not collapsed.  Our professor told us that we would carry on with our classes as usual despite the attack.  Because they made it a point to say that, I realized this was a big deal.  I feel foolish that I could not grasp how serious the attack on our country was in the moment.  Later in the day, I learned that more people died in this attack than in Pearl Harbor. 

Now I look back 10 years later and I share the feelings a lot of us have as "we remember".  I do not think America can be sufficiently avenged from 9/11 and I wonder if America can avert every possible terrorist threat.