Coming of Age on September 11, 2001

I remember it like it was yesterday, but not for the reasons you may think.

My family and I were staying with a family friend who lived in an immensely remodeled house on the west side of St. Louis. My room was in the attic, but I also used to sleep in a room on the third floor. It was a Tuesday and I had to go to class that day. I was in my freshman year of college at Harris-Stowe State University.

I had just moved to Saint Louis in July of that year after a tumultuous graduation that ended in me being put out. I didn’t want to live in St. Louis and I was still in culture shock. I was a native of New Jersey and didn’t fit in with the culture in St. Louis. St. Louis was country and city at the same time. People prided themselves on speaking to one another and being courteous, yet you heard about murders and violence on a daily basis. It was too complex for me to get the hang of quickly.

Before I left New Jersey, I was staying with my best friend Brandi. She ended up going to college right outside of New York City. We talked on the phone nearly everyday and I don’t know how I would’ve adjusted to my new life without her friendship. Life was pretty tough for me at that moment. I didn’t know what to expect, where I was headed, or what I was going to do. Essentially, my whole world had been pulled from under me.

I was only 18 years old and I was basically starting my life over. My goal was to make St. Louis a temporary stop and get back east as quickly as possible. I had a dominant East Coast attitude and I felt the rest of America was slower and inferior.

On Septemeber 11, 2001,  I woke up and headed to the kitchen. I turned on The Today Show and immediately couldn’t believe what was before my eyes. A building was burning in New York City. A plane crashed into the Word Trade Center. What a disaster! I thought. All those poor people on the plane. I had only flew once and up until that point I had a fear of flying. Moments later, another plane crashed into the second tower and the tone of the day changed. This was not a plane crash, this was a terror attack!

It felt like this was the beginning of something terrible. It felt like things were only going to get worse. I went to school that day and they let us out early. The entire country was in disarray and no one knew what was in store for us. As I sat on the campus, I remember looking up at the sky and not seeing anything. For the first time, the air traffic had been grounded and the skies were quiet.

I got home and I called and called my best friend over and over again. What if she decided to go the World Trade Center that day? What if she had just decided to walk around in the area? I called and called and I couldn't get through. All the phone lines were tied up. I called her mother in New Jersey and I couldn't get through. The lines there were also tied up. I finally got through to her mother days later. She told me her story of how she was evacuated from her job in Philadelphia because everyone was unsure of where the next attack would be. All was well with the people who were close to me, but it wasn't so for so many others. 

For me September 11th, was the latest in a string of traumatic experiences in the year 2001. It started when George W. Bush became president in January. I graduated from high school in June of that year and was homeless three days later. I ended up in St. Louis in July and quickly learned that the world was bigger and stranger than what I had anticipated. In August, Aaliyah died in a plane crash and while she may have been just a star to some, she was a superstar to me. September 11^th happened at a time when I was lost, finding myself, and coming of age. It was a quick and dirty reality check that adulthood was going to be full of life changing and sometimes horrible events.