Jumping on the memory lane train….
I was a freshman in college at Ball State University in Muncie Indiana. I had only been at BSU for about a month at the time- but it seemed like longer since I had quickly formed strong lifelong friendships already. The dorms I was In (Lafollette, Brayton/Clevenger, 7th floor) were old and kind of nasty. But we had SO much fun. All of the freshman were in ther. The first 4 floors were guys, and the top 4 floors were girls.
Tuesdays and Thursdays were my favorite days. I had an early morning English class and then no classes until my PE class at 6:30 p.m. I woke up roughly 15 minutes before class and went in my PJ’s because well- my English class was in the basement of my dorm so I didn’t even have to go outside. I just brushed my teeth and got my mascara goop out of the corners of my eyes and if my classmates were lucky- I spritzed on some Gap Dream Body Spray that day.
Right before I was about to go downstairs, another friend who had an early class met me in the hallway on the way to the bathrooms. She said her mom called and told me to turn on the news. Holy balls. Is this really happening? I didn’t really want to miss class (although I had many times before) because I wanted to get some scoop on it from a professor.
I went to class and it was the eeriest thing. Everyoen sat there quietly. Nobody was checking e-mails or anything. We just sat. Silence. our professor cam ein the room.
He was an older stout guy. He could hardly speak. He had been crying. He got one sentence out about what had happened before he broke down in tears once again. He knew many good friends and family members that worked at the World Trade Center. After a few minutes he said the he couldn’t teach today and that ‘class was dismissed’. We all sat there still. Nobody moved. He said ‘seriously- please leave’ and we all got up and left without saying a word.
Everyone spent the remainder of the day gathered in my dorm room watching the news. Not sure why everyone always sat in our room- it was never clean. But It was closest to the bathrooms and elevator so maybe it was convenience.
It’s a college campus so of course there were crazy things going on. Protests on war. People preaching love and not hate. Other people saying we should go bomb ‘them’ but nobody really knew who, yet.
Then there was a gas craze. Where everyone thought it was going to run out. Long lines EVERY where. I wasn’t really too worried since I didn’t have a car; however I did call my dad and asked how I’d get home again if gas ran out. He assured me that people were being nutty and gas was not going to run out (i love that Dad is always right). I was pretty nervous i wouldn’t see them for awhile though. My way home was my sister- and she honestly was probably still sleeping and had no idea what was even happening :)
Later that evening we went to a candle light vigil with students where we all prayed for everyone and everything.
It’s weird that some young people don’t remember much about it. I guess this is something we’ll all tell our grandkids one day. Much like my grandparents told me about where they were in historical events. I also remember where I was when they captured Saddam Hussein and Bin Ladin. I was actually just waking up all 3 times. Why does this stuff always happen in the morning?
While that specific September 11 day was quite memorable- I think one of the most memorable parts of it was talking about it with my late Grandpa Wilson. Whenever I came home from college I would go see my Grandma and Grandma. One time later that year they had gone to Pennsylvania (we have family there) and stopped by the site where the heroes took over and crashed the plane instead of letting it hit somewhere else. He was telling me about it and cried a little and had to wipe his eyes. I think he was proud, scared and sad all at the same time. So was I.
