Avatar Carl's blog: "9/11"

On September 11th, 2001, I was a Culinary Arts student at Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa, Iowa. It was lab class, and the teacher had given us our instructions for the day. She then said she had something to tell us. "Two planes have crashed..." And she stopped. During that stop, I thought there was a mid-air collision that killed the dean of the school or something. Why else would she stop class to tell us about a plane crash? Then she started again. "Into the World Trade Center" I can't remember what she said after that, I was trying to think, was there an accident? Was it intentional? Were we being attacked? Invaded? Then the teacher singled me out to tell me my mom was waiting outside the class for me. That really worried me.

Mom told me that there was another plane crash, this one about 100 miles of Pittsburgh, which is where my family lives. She was headed home to call up family and make sure they were alright. We found out later that Flight 93 crashed south of Pittsburgh, not west, but we didn't know that at the time. However, three crashes pretty much eliminated the possibility of "accident".

I went from class to class, looking up at the sky, shocked by both how quiet it was, and worrying about more planes, thinking that there may be a group of enemy fighter planes in our airspace. I didn't realize they were passenger planes until lunch.

During my lunch break, I didn't eat. I was in the school library, watching the news, and seeing the crashes and collapse of the towers. Growing up, I always thought it was a bit absurd when I heard people talk about where they were when Kennedy was assassinated. I finally understood on September 11th.