September 11

I look back and one thing stands clear. In the morning of September 11, I had no idea what was happening. I had class at 8 a.m., which was an hour earlier than most students. For that hour, our class had no idea what was happening outside our classroom. When I walked out of my precal class, I still didn't know that terrorist had attacked. It was only when I entered my next class and people around me were saying, "Did you hear that they closed down the airports” I was confused and asked what was going on. Their reaction was, "you don't know?" "No," I said, "I was just in class." A classmate then told me that an airplane had flown into the Twin Towers. The whole class was talking about it. The rest of the class and the school day was spent watching the news and wondering what was happening to our country.

What will always stand out was that it was a normal day for me. I had precal in the morning, followed by econ. Those were the things that I concerned myself with. What was more striking to me was that while airplanes where being flown into the Twin Towers, I was busing with schoolwork. And even when I walked with my friends to econ, I still didn't know. When I entered the classroom, I still didn't know. It was only after I sat down, got all my stuff prepared to begin class that I found out. Even then, it was all confusing. It wasn't until I saw images in TV that I realize what was happening to the country.

It's been three years, and in that short time, so many things have changed because of 9/11. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In Iraq, US troops' deaths have reached 1000, and it doesn't show any signs of slowing down.

A couple of days ago, a car bomb went off at the Australian embassy in Jakarta, and it seems that groups related to al Qaeda are to blame. Terrorists are bolder than I remember them ever being. It doesn't seem that these bombings will let up.

The Middle East still rages with violence, and I don't see a time when two groups of being who have lost so much already will ever be at peace with one another.

I could go on and on and on.

I remember growing up and thinking that the idea of hoping for World Peace was cheesy and a throw back to the hippies’ era, but those two words are on my mind right now.