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As everyone knows it’s been 10 years since that fateful day!! 10 years since the United States of America was attacked on their own soil. Everyone has a story, their story as to where they were, what they were doing that day. This is my story:
It was a Tuesday morning, I had Kinesiology class, to this day I am not sure I learnt anything I understood in that class, but that’s besides the point. I was a sophomore at the College of St Catherine, where classes on Tuesday and Thursdays were 1 hour 35 minutes. Class was in the Butler Center Gym, where I had a lot of friends as I worked at the gym. I got to class a bit early, which never really happened for me, I stopped back to the office to say hi and waste time till class started. While I was there, the first plane hit the first tower. The office manager got the TV out from the back, we turned it on. We were in shock…….WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON???
Now as this blog title states, I was an African, a South African in America. I was barely 21 years old and living on my own, COMPLETELY alone. What was happening? The United States is supposed to be one of the safest places in the world and it appeared it was under attack……….When that class got out, yes our teacher made us have class, but none of us paid any attention, we could hear everyone outside saying their was a 2nd plane, then the towers fell, etc……..How were we to pay attention in class??
During my time at St Kate’s I was a member of many ‘communities’ and on 9/11/01 this was no different. I was on the hockey team, I was a resident adviser, I was a member of SCISO (the international student organization) and I had my group of friends, Americans and internationals. There was another South African student at St Kate’s and her brother was in NY, he was supposed to be in the towers, but somehow, some way he was not, he contacted our Dean of Students to please let his sister know he was safe……the Dean found me and got me to deliver that message.
The resident life office arranged for a special meeting to take place, as well as the international office. The SCISO meeting was first, we met up, we were scared, we didn’t know what was going on, what should we expect?? The scariest thought is that the airports were shut down, we couldn’t get out, we couldn’t get HOME to our families, to those who could hug us and tell us we would be ok, we were all ALONE!!! A large majority of the students parents had been in touch with them, told them NOT to leave the campus, to only leave their dorm rooms in groups, that they feared that they’d be retaliated against due to their skin color, due to their appearance. These were Indian and Pakistani students, students that ‘appear’ to be Muslim, whether or not they were was besides the point, they were petrified!! And this infuriated me!! I was still under the impression I was able to take on the world………I was so angry by this that I told them should anyone need someone to walk with them to class, or to the gym, or to the corner store they should contact me, or arrange times I would be available to go with them. This was the emotion I left this group with, I was ANGRY, a hard ass that I felt could take on the people who would choose to act out against this group of my friends!!
After this meeting I had to rush off the to resident life meeting, also a much-needed meeting. But by this point, the day had been long, remember I was early to my morning class, I actually got up early and I was a college student, this ‘early’ was not something I did often!! I was emotionally and physically drained, my emotions had been so up and down and up and down all day I thought for sure I was riding a never-ending roller coaster, that at times had no seat belt.
In the resident life meeting I fear I had tried for too long to control my emotions, to reign them in and keep myself STRONG, strong for others. In this meeting I was surrounded by mainly Americans. We spoke of how we could assist students, how we could inform them of the counselling available on campus, how we could be there for them, what resources were available etc. BUT WHAT ABOUT ME??? Who was going to be there for me?????
I BROKE DOWN!!!!!!! I shocked more than one person in that meeting, here the hard ass African hockey playing girl was crying!! Yes I was crying, I didn’t allow many people to see this side of me, I felt I had to stay strong throughout, after all I was here, in the USA, in MN, ALL ALONE!! I didn’t want to show anyone my vulnerabilities, but what most everyone didn’t know was that I am an extremely emotional person. I have break downs, I sit and I cry, and cry!!! And that’s what I did. I said “I’M SCARED!!!” “I cannot get home, I am here, alone and I am trapped!” I had no idea what would happen in the upcoming days, weeks or months, and by God I was petrified!!!! But this time, as I had in the SCISO meeting, this group of ladies rallied around me, putting their own fears aside, they spoke kind words, they hugged me, they made me feel safe, and if only for that moment I realized that although I was technically here alone, these women, this campus, the communities I belonged to, they’d all become my family, my home away from home!!!
All in all this is a day I will never forget. This is a day no one should ever forget. However, as I read in a fellow bloggers blog, this is a topic I will never again blog on. The USA is resilient, they do keep fighting, they went after Osama and although it took 10 years, they got him. Osama Bin Laden is at the bottom of the ocean, a bullet in his head!! Granted, after how he made thousands of people suffer on 9/11/01, I think he was put to death in far too humane of a way, but the fact remains, he is fish food. It’s been 10 years, I think the blame game needs to end, the USA as well as the world need to come together and continue to over come the evil that is in these terrorists minds, but as for 9/11, I have closed the book on it.
I pray today as well as every day for those impacted by these attacks, both on American soil and on the soil of foreign lands, as the “war on terror” has continued since that day, I pray that you and your families can find the peace needed to move on. I do not know how it must have felt to lose someone that day, or in the days since, the thousands of mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, daughters, and sons that perished. For you and your families I pray!!!
I also pray that the world will find a way to become as unified as they did in the days following those attacks. My communities I belonged to as St Kate’s were truly unified. They kept me going through what seemed to be some of the scariest and darkest times of my life, for that I will be forever grateful. But our world, the entire world needs to find a way to make this unification happen every day, not only after catastrophic events.
