Today is the 10th anniversary of what has been commonly referred to as "9/11". It was the announcement of joining WWII , or the JFK getting shot of our generation. "Where were you when you heard?"
I will never forget that day. I was living in Toronto at the time and school had just begun. I woke up that morning and got on my computer. Like every other morning, I tried to check out http://www.thestar.com/ for the latest news or weather. For some reason I couldn't get the site to work. So I tried my backup, http://www.ottawacitizen.com/ and that too, was also seemingly defunct for the day. Newsless, I headed off to campus. What a beautiful day it was...barely a cloud in the sky, the air crisp, just about to turn to Autumn. However, there was a strange air around the subway...something in the atmosphere seemed off. Usually passengers were stoic and reserved but everyone seemed to be on some sort of alert. I heard some people talking about a plane but I didn't pay too much attention to it. When I got to Downsview station, I had to take a bus to the campus. I took my seat, waiting for other passengers to board. One man got on and said to the driver "The second tower fell." At that point, I knew for sure something was going on, but I wasn't certain if I wanted to know what it was...it sounded bad.
When I got to campus, I picked up my copy of the Toronto Star and scanned the headlines...nothing out of the ordinary and nothing about any towers or planes. I shrugged and headed towards Vari Hall for the first day of my Theatre Survey II class with Don Rubin. I sat down with some girls in my year and they told me that the World Trade Centre had been attacked. Then Dr. Rubin came in and told us more details, that there was speculation that the terrorists were either of Pakistani or Iranian nationality but there weren't many details.
The rest of the day was in slow motion. The Star ran a second edition newspaper (the first time since the 1940s I think) and I was reading it while waiting for the bus home. One of my friends bounded over chipper as ever and I wasn't as perky as she expected and she said "Oh what's wrong?" and I motioned towards a picture of a jet slamming into a building. Her response was "oh yeah. that." I can't really blame her, it was surreal and far from home...and yet for me, it was too close to home. This was the kind of thing you saw in movies.
When I got home I stayed glued to the television for several hours. My father is a firefighter, so it was difficult to hear how many had lost their lives trying to save others. That night I had to work at Lee's Palace...there was a large party planned to center around the Toronto International Film Fest but because of what had happened earlier that day, no one really showed up. In fact, the festival pretty much stopped. In fact, it felt like everything had stopped.
More details emerged about Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, Taliban, terrorists. It made my head spin. They couldn't have picked a dumber president to fuck with, so in a way, they were lucky. But no matter how many terrorists get killed, there really are no winners. Nothing can bring back the victims of 9/11. No one can make things right after something of those proportions.
I can't even really conclude this post because I'm out of words over it. I can't even imagine what it was like. Everything I'd seen of that day was filtered through cameras. I think the only proper way I can sign off is to dedicate this entry to the thousands of people who died, who were injured, who lost their loved ones and who witnessed New York City being brought down to its knees that sunny, clear September day.
I will never forget that day. I was living in Toronto at the time and school had just begun. I woke up that morning and got on my computer. Like every other morning, I tried to check out http://www.thestar.com/ for the latest news or weather. For some reason I couldn't get the site to work. So I tried my backup, http://www.ottawacitizen.com/ and that too, was also seemingly defunct for the day. Newsless, I headed off to campus. What a beautiful day it was...barely a cloud in the sky, the air crisp, just about to turn to Autumn. However, there was a strange air around the subway...something in the atmosphere seemed off. Usually passengers were stoic and reserved but everyone seemed to be on some sort of alert. I heard some people talking about a plane but I didn't pay too much attention to it. When I got to Downsview station, I had to take a bus to the campus. I took my seat, waiting for other passengers to board. One man got on and said to the driver "The second tower fell." At that point, I knew for sure something was going on, but I wasn't certain if I wanted to know what it was...it sounded bad.
When I got to campus, I picked up my copy of the Toronto Star and scanned the headlines...nothing out of the ordinary and nothing about any towers or planes. I shrugged and headed towards Vari Hall for the first day of my Theatre Survey II class with Don Rubin. I sat down with some girls in my year and they told me that the World Trade Centre had been attacked. Then Dr. Rubin came in and told us more details, that there was speculation that the terrorists were either of Pakistani or Iranian nationality but there weren't many details.
The rest of the day was in slow motion. The Star ran a second edition newspaper (the first time since the 1940s I think) and I was reading it while waiting for the bus home. One of my friends bounded over chipper as ever and I wasn't as perky as she expected and she said "Oh what's wrong?" and I motioned towards a picture of a jet slamming into a building. Her response was "oh yeah. that." I can't really blame her, it was surreal and far from home...and yet for me, it was too close to home. This was the kind of thing you saw in movies.
When I got home I stayed glued to the television for several hours. My father is a firefighter, so it was difficult to hear how many had lost their lives trying to save others. That night I had to work at Lee's Palace...there was a large party planned to center around the Toronto International Film Fest but because of what had happened earlier that day, no one really showed up. In fact, the festival pretty much stopped. In fact, it felt like everything had stopped.
More details emerged about Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, Taliban, terrorists. It made my head spin. They couldn't have picked a dumber president to fuck with, so in a way, they were lucky. But no matter how many terrorists get killed, there really are no winners. Nothing can bring back the victims of 9/11. No one can make things right after something of those proportions.
I can't even really conclude this post because I'm out of words over it. I can't even imagine what it was like. Everything I'd seen of that day was filtered through cameras. I think the only proper way I can sign off is to dedicate this entry to the thousands of people who died, who were injured, who lost their loved ones and who witnessed New York City being brought down to its knees that sunny, clear September day.
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