Arden inspired me (if that's what you can call it) to just what it was like for somebody over on this side of the world to witness what everybody saw. Obviously, I didn't see it in person and I am thankful for that because it was scary and surreal enough as it was watching it on television.
It was 10:55pm roughly and I was busy working on a media studies assignment that was due the next day that I had left until the last minute to complete, not realising how much work was necessary. I was out in the living room sitting in front of the heater because it was cold and I needed lots of room to spread my assignment out over that my bedroom couldn't afford. So I was sitting there and the 10.30 news was on channel 10. They had just come back from a commercial break and then reporter Sandra Sully was on saying there was breaking news and that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Centre (sorry, force of habit to spell it that way).
At the time I wasn't sure what the world trade centre was purely by name and was wondering what on earth it meant that a plane had flown into one of them. How does that happen? I walked out into the kitchen where my mum was cleaning and my brother was getting ready to go to work (he works as a security guard and does the night shift) as he still lived with us at this point. So i went into the kitchen and asked "Do you know what the world trade centre is in New York?" and they said yes and I go "well an airplane just crashed into one." and went back into the living room where Sully was now reporting that a second one had crashed into the second tower.
"Another plane just crashed into another building!" and then my brother and mum came in and sat down. You can watch a clip of Sandra Sully (the first Australian to report the incident) over here from a news respective they had last year when the network was turning 40-years-old. I can't find the original though.
Anyway so we were sitting there just watching it and it was very strange. I was only 15 at that point if my maths is correct. I was in year 10. It definitely didn't hit me straight away. In fact I remember us joking that this would be turned into a movie starring Bruce Willis. :/ Defence mechanisms work in funny ways, I suppose.
Anyway, the news reporting continued. We changed the television to channel 7 and they had direct feed from NBC and were only occasionally cutting to their own reporters in the studio. This was even stranger to watch. Watching Americans discussing it was confusing. Not knowing the landscape of New York City I kept thinking "Why are they still on air?"
Before I knew it it was roughtly 11.30am, I had to be up at 7.30 so I could get ready for school and I still had to complete my assignment, which I had a lot to work on still. I went back to work on my assignment as the tv continued to show us images. (these events are very much out of order as I cannot remember the exact way it panned out) People were jumping out of the towers, they were interviewing specialists (did they have these people on a rolladex?), more planes were feared hijacked, one crashed into the Pentagon and then the towers collapsed and I felt... nothing. It was one of those moments where you just sit there with nothing going on in your brain. Mouth open. What is this? This doesn't happen in our society. Not in America. Just getting more confused by the minute.
Many of the footage that we have since seen was beginning to filter in. People filming random events. ANYTHING that happened was news. A plane had crashed into a field. They think it was headed for either the White House or the place George W Bush was reported to be staying (some camp. I think it had 'bear' in the name?)
All of this was happening while I was working on my assignment. I did not want to lose grades on this assignment.
The hours wore on and it was 4am and it was about now that the television networks started to recycle all the footage all over again and I was tired and I had finished my assignment and I wanted to go to bed and get as much sleep as possible. I remember laying in bed on my side (as I do) with my eyes wide open, just thinking. What an odd night.
I awoke in the morning and followed my normal routine. I went to the kitchen and made breakfast. I turned the radio on to listen to Tracy Bartram and Matt Tilley who were the popular morning radio personalities at the time. They were taking calls from listeners who wanted to talk about it. It was weird. Again, I felt detached from the news. Overnight Afghanistan was attacked if I remember correctly. Nobody knew what this meant.
I went to school that day and walking across the back oval towards the building felt weird still. Nobody was animated or doing anything other than strolling to class barely saying a word. Getting into class was different. I remember sitting there in form room. My friend Rosey was really upset. I don't remember anybody else.
I went to my Graphics class. Mr Hambling had the radio on and Tracy and Matt were still on talking to people who had called through. I remember sitting there with some friends (people I am no longer friends with btw) confused. My friends were talking about it as if it were nothing, I was thinking to myself "WHAT?" I finally spoke up and said they think 20,000 people are dead. I don't know why they didn't care.
The day continued. Last class for the day was Media Studies and Mr Boyle said it was alright if it wasn't completed and we could have until our next class. He said people could work on their assignments in that class (we had a few on the go) but myself and Kate just kinda talked about how weird everything was.
Getting home that day all the networks were on their 24/7 coverage. I don't really remember the next few days. It's all sort of a blur.
I do remember though that I don't remember crying. I know that. I don't know why. In the years that have passed I have grown significantly and now just the mention of it gets me feeling caught up. I wasn't too young to experience what happened, but I was too young to fully comprehend it. I do cry now whenever it's discussed. Australian television is celebrating 50 years on the air this year so there's a lot of retrospectives and 9/11 routinely tops lists of biggest events in the last 50 years. Reading about it, watching it, all that is just incredibly sad. I remember though thinking all the tributes that featured on awards shows and the like were getting frustrating. I wanted people to move on. I realise now why it was, and still is, so hard.
Further proof of my immaturity of sorts was evidenced a year later on October 13. That date is my birthday, however just before Midnight during the night the Indonesian tourist destination of Bali was bombed. I woke up on my birthday to the news that something up to 300 Australians were dead (the eventual number was significantly less, at 88 if I remember correctly). I remember asking my friends (and this parallel's Arden's quote) "this is going to become a thing isn't it?" and it did.
Earlier this year I became one of the tourists that Arden discusses. I didn't exactly want to go, but I felt that I needed to. I was shocked to see how small it was. I was shocked to find that I wanted to yell at the horrible rotten cretens that pollute the area throwing out there conspiracy theories and their hatred. I wanted to scream at them and tell them they're disgusting people and they should be ashamed of themselves. But most of all, I wanted to just cry.
God, this was a downer. I think I'm gonna go watch that scene from Las Vegas I discussed yesterday. Also, sorry if this entry was incredibly rough and rambled and typo-filled. I was writing on the fly.
Peace out, people.
No comments:
Post a Comment