The Obligatory Nine Eleven Post.

I was in eleventh grade in a sub-suburb of DC the day the planes flew into the World Trade Towers. Many of my classmate�s parents worked in DC and we were really a stones throw from Camp David, so even though we were not NY we certainly were within range if they had decided to send a small army. I remember they just locked us in and we sat and watched television all day while kid�s parents called them on cell phones that no one was supposed to have, but everyone did. People with parents working in DC tried to get in touch with them, the day went on. They cancelled after school activities and sent us home on time.

I went home to my father and mother and my moms good friend, a professor at a local college, her daughter had just graduated that spring and had gotten a job in NYC- across from the world trade towers. The professor could not get in touch with her daughter even through the evening, so she was heading up to NJ in a panic and praying fairly hard I imagine. She left her dog with us. It turned out the girl was right across the street from the WTC and saw people jumping from the towers, she got out and managed to call her roommate that evening so the roommate finally got in touch with the mother.

The PA crash was also scary because for us it was also not that far from home. We were surrounded it seemed.

I don't think it really scared me that much though; I was sort of invincible at that age. That is all I remember except the stories Vanessa told about the bodies falling from the tower and her vomiting and trying to call family.

I know my parents had the television on that day when I came home from school which was odd as television was not a big thing in my home; it was rarely if ever on during the daylight hours.

My whole class was sure we would eventually all be nuked anyway and it really didn't seem to affect or matter to us; it just seemed like a possibility of daily life and we went on our way.

That is it.

Of course I felt bad for the people who had died, but felt, even then, that there were thousands of tragic deaths every year in this country and worldwide and although I understood this was different the deaths were no more or less tragic to me than others. I don�t know if being sixteen made the difference. I don�t remember this in the same way as many people do. I feel bad for everyone that was traumatized by it but I can�t fully understand that because it did not traumatize me.

It did affect what my world would be like afterwards though. I think it was the �we against them� thing that got us. It got us subsequently into a big mess as maybe we wanted so badly to get back at someone, anyone, that even the wrong one would do and we evidently threw ourselves into reality shows as our reality was not so hot any longer.

The truth is there is no we, there never was, it was all a fallacy. The hurricane if nothing else proved that.