One year later, just one glance at the New York skyline still takes me back to that day. The only way to describe the uneasy feeling I get when thinking about 9/11 is "surreal."
On Sept. 11, 2001, I thought I heard two professors say that there was an attack on the towers. I thought, "No, it can't be true," and continued on my way to class. After a friend confirmed my worst fears, I proceeded in search of a television so I could see in front of me what I wished only to be a bad dream.
As a native New Yorker, I instinctively worried about family and friends even though I knew that most of them would not have been near the towers during the attack. As I watched the coverage of the towers falling down, seeing people frightened, upset and injured, tears filled my eyes. I thought, "only a crazy person could do something so atrocious." As I lay in bed that night I was overcome by sadness thinking about all the lives that were needlessly lost; all the people who were waiting for someone to come home; all the firefighters who were brave enough to go in and look for survivors.
The more I thought about it, the worse I felt, but I knew that the only thing I could do to help these people was to offer them my thoughts and prayers. The following day in class, I remember thinking, "I don't care about music theory right now. People are more important to me." It just felt wrong to be in a classroom, knowing what was going on outside of it.
Although Sept. 11 is not a day that most of us want to remember, it cannot be ignored. I think it should be a day that we remember in a special way, by thinking about all the victims of the attack and all those still mourning the loss of a loved one.
Despite the horrors of 9/11, we must remember the positive effects that resulted. I know that I hold my family and friends more dear than ever before. Also, through our mourning-as a nation and as human beings-we came together to bring solace to each other.