Marking a decade

“The morning was bright and crisp..” or so begins much of the coverage of the events of September 11th. The temperatures for me, on the other hand, were already climbing into the upper 90’s with a chance to breach the centennial temperature mark. Bullets of sweat poured down my face as we marched our final practice set and began to walk back towards the high school. Marching band, to much of our chagrin, continued to be held from 6:15 am till 7:30am, right before school would begin. Sadly, our other option was to bare the scorching sun in the afternoon when temperatures were regularly over 100… many of us were willing to sacrifice for another hour of sleep in the morning. Since I was in the top band, we actually rehearsed immediately after marching band during the first period of school. As such, we were relaxed and chatted like any other day before school… until one of our band directors darted out from his office and turned on the television in the band hall. One of the towers had already been struck… soon after taking in the initial shock of what I saw, the other tower was struck.

None of us in that room could fully comprehend the magnitude of the event that now plays out in my head like an old friend. We were blissfully unaware of the scope of what was to come. After about 15 minutes of watching the flames erupt from the upper floors, someone suggested we form a prayer ring. Even at this point in high school, I was beginning to drift away from religion, but I felt a strong urge to join in… to replace the vortex of confusion and void that occupied my thoughts. Everyone went around the ring making a remark or thought for the crash victims and for the safety of those affected. What occurred next, I will never forget. After the ring disbanded, we all looked up to the television again, and before our eyes the south tower began to collapse. When I first witnessed this event, my mind only could interpret it as the upper most portion of the tower collapsing. Only after the smoke cleared did I realize that the tower had actually collapsed entirely… innocence had come to an end.