Where was I?

Four years ago today at about this time I was in my dorm room reading this article off the CNN website debating whether Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Massoud had been assassinated. Under normal circumstances, this article would have been long forgotten. However, the events several hours later caused this article to become suddenly more meaningful.

I remember sitting in the computer lab at my college in St. Louis, having someone come into the lab telling us that one, then two planes had hit the World Trade Center. We desperately searched for information on the internet, as many of the news websites were hard to access. Reporters must have been filing individual sentences. In the middle of one article it read "The Pentagon is on fire" and when I sounded alarmed, the person next to me said "Oh, I'm sure that's just a euphemism for the fact they're angry." I agreed and for a few minutes until the story gave the more literal interpretation, I felt a little relief. It took a while for America to understand it had been attacked.

I remember trying to explain what had happened to my Spanish teacher ("en espanol, por favor") trying to get her to cancel class. We held that class that day with every student jumping out of their seat at every construction noise outside. The school cancelled all the afternoon classes that day. The Spanish teacher apologized a few days later, saying that when I had said that a terrorist attack had occurred with planes and the Twin Towers had been destroyed, she thought I was exaggerating. For people who hadn't seen the images, it was pretty unbelievable.

I remember sitting in a room with many political science professors and grad students. These people would have some brilliant observations over the coming days; but that day all I remember is sitting silently and staring at the screen, hoping for more information.

I remember getting my first laugh of the day when St. Louis announced that as a security measure they were closing the Forest Park History museum. Right, first they hit the twin towers, then the Pentagon, the next logical target was not the history museum in St. Louis; the absurdity made several of us laugh. They also closed the Arch which I respected as a very, very smart move.

I remember going running with my college roommate and having to stop after seeing military aircraft patrolling the skies. It was a sight I had never even considered.

I remember my mom calling me, just because everyone needed to talk to their families that day.

I remember later that night walking into a room full of people watching the scenes on TV of bombs in Afghanistan. And as people wondered whether the US was already attacking, I said no, it was probably the Northern Alliance retaliating for the death of their leader Massoud. It was just a small story that probably should have been forgotten through the shock of the day... Instead, four years later as someone who analyzes media about international politics for a living, reading that article is how I remember starting my morning.