I remember where I was sitting. That moment in time will be etched into my memory forever. Even six years later, the calamity of that day has not yet been fully comprehended. September 11th, 2001 was a tragic day, one I will never ever forget. It's the kind of event that resonates with you when you hear your parents talking about John F. Kennedy being shot or perhaps when the Challenger Spacecraft exploded in 1986. Why is it that these times are so well engrained in our memories?

I was just a freshman in high school. It was the first period of the day; at my school it was called "Block 2-3." I was in an Introduction to Business class sitting and listening to the teacher explains the readings and then another teacher walked into the room. He pronounced that, "Two planes had collided with one another over New York City." This was alarming news, a tragedy and unforeseen event, of course, but we all didn't really know how to react. In retrospect, this information was flawed. The planes didn't crash into one another, but rather, they crashed into the World Trade Center. Not knowing how to digest the news that we all just heard, my teacher decided to continue on with her lecture as she had planned. I don't think many people in the class realized the catastrophe that had just occurred. I know I didn't.

After the class was over, walking through the hallways, you could see the frenzied look on everyone's face. I grew up in a town in Illinois, far away from the actual incidents that occurred in New York City, but the shock was felt nevertheless. Still unsure as to what had actually transpired, I walked to my next class with my friends and everyone continued to go on with their days as normal. Arriving at my math class, my teacher gave us the option of going to the library in order to watch the events unfold; everyone was still very unaware of what calamity had struck. We decided to postpone going to class that day, and instead watch a fateful event that would change the course of our nation forever.

When I first saw the tape of the incident, I couldn't believe it. It didn't seem real. Here was a huge airplane, carrying hundreds of people, and all of a sudden you just see it enter the side of a building and explode in a massive fireball. It was barely 10am and it didn't appear as though the devastation could get any worse. I thought to myself that this must have been some terrible mistake. The pilot must have lost control and unfortunately gone into the building. The next thing I heard made that theory a little less believable. Images of smoke and fire were being shown on CNN now coming from the Pentagon in Washington DC. An airplane hit this target too. How could it be possible?



My sister found me sitting in the library with my math class. She was a senior then and informed me that our cousin living in New York City was safe. It was a relief to hear that no one I knew personally was affected by the attack. I was a lucky one. There were several people from my school, all the way in Illinois, who had parents, uncles, aunts, or cousins who perished that day. I can't even imagine what that must have been like.

And then it all came crashing down. Literally. As I watched the two towers of the World Trade Center fall on top of itself, my heart skipped a beat and I forgot to breathe. I have never in my life seen anything more destructive and terrorizing in my life. Seeing the coverage of people fleeing from the collapsing building sends chills down my spine. Each person, covered from head to toe with dust and soot. How to wash oneself clean of this?

September 11th, 2001 was seemingly the beginning of something that continues to this day. Six years later we are still fighting a masked foe and have dug ourselves deeper than ever before. America invaded Afghanistan to find Osama Bin Laden, who is labeled as plotting this attack. He is still missing and goes unpunished six years later. Then America invaded Iraq to get rid of their weapons of mass destruction. However, half way through the conquest, it became a liberation from their ruler Saddam Hussein. The war still wages on in Iraq, and countless American lives have been lost to this effort. Six years. Six years later and it appears as though there may not be an end in sight. The Taliban is still in Afghanistan. Al Qaeda is still a terrorist organization that is growing thanks to the Internet. There are so many problems that still persist, maybe even more so than on September 11th, 2001. As long as we remember, as long as we always remember those events of September 11th, 2001, we'll never forget. Be smart. Be aware. Be the solution.

This post was originally written by Tyrone Schiff
University of Michigan · Organizational Studies · 11 Sep 2007