Remembering 9/11: 20 years later
September 11, 2021
Sept. 11, 2001 is one of those dates you’ll always remember — exactly what you were doing, feeling that day. I was a freshman at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. I remember exactly where I was when the news started to spread. The west coast was just waking up. I was in an early morning 7 am-ish math lab in University Hall trying to figure out excel formulas when a classmate burst into the classroom saying we were getting attacked. The “we” he was referring to was America. By then, one of the towers collapsed and another one shortly after. We quickly pulled up a web browser to confirm what our classmate was saying. We went to CNN.com. The images were unbelievable. My classmates started to call home. Then the fire alarm went off and everyone left the building. Eventually, all classes were canceled later that day.
I tried to go home to the South Bay as I was commuting from home that first semester to campus. But because LMU was located near LAX, and all nearby streets and freeways were closed off so I was effectively stuck. I stayed with a high school friend who also attended LMU that night. We spent the rest of the day watching the news unfold in horror. I called my mom to tell her what was happening. She was half awake, just coming off of the overnight shift. She couldn’t understand what I was saying, “we’re getting bombed!” She is was like, “what bomb?” I told her to turn on the TV and she couldn’t believe it. In the months to follow, I kept in touch with my peers via AOL messenger. A topic that came up often during those sleepless nights was, “Do you think we are going to war?” We all know what happened next. I knew friends of friends who enlisted. Everything seemed so far away — fast and furious.
I don’t think I’ve fully processed the events of that day even 20 years later. When I moved to NYC 2010 and spent a decade there working at various news organizations, 9/11’s impact was undeniable. That event was probably the first brush of non-stop breaking news I’ve encountered (even before I became a full-fledged journalist in 2004). Seeing so many of those images, like many journalists, when covering breaking news, you end up having to compartmentalize a lot in order to continue to report the news.
In the years to come, I’ve crossed paths with key places that reminded me of that day — working at CNN and then at The AP, whose current HQ office is located across the 9/11 memorial. It’s a reminder of how memory and remembering plays such a pivotal role in our lives today. While there’s a generation who was too young or wasn’t even born before 9/11, it doesn’t take away from the loss and grief we still feel for all those we lost that day and why we must continue to tell their stories. Gone yet not forgotten. #NeverForget #911anniversary #september11