As inhabitants of the East coast stood still and took a collective breath on the morning of September 11, 2001, the West coast was sound asleep.
Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center—the first tower hit—at approximately 8:45 a.m. Eastern standard time. People were well into their morning routines—kids were in school, the streets were crowded and the horrors of morning traffic had already started.
On the West coast, most people hadn’t even gotten out of bed.
I grew up in Tigard, Oregon—almost 3,000 miles away from New York. On September 11, I woke up to my parents telling me that the World Trade Center had been attacked. I didn’t even know what the Twin Towers were. I did not know a single person who had been directly affected by the attacks—nobody’s relatives worked at the World Trade Center; nobody was on any of the flights that day. Watching the news seemed almost like watching a movie.
Although our nation was attacked, it all felt distant and surreal.
John Wang, a second year Divinity School graduate student, accounted a similar feeling of detachment. At the time he was living in Roland Heights, California.
“I was sitting in my sophomore English honors class and we heard news that there was an attack, so our teacher turned on the TV in the classroom, and we started to watch these events unfold,” Wang said. “It was a really surreal experience—kind of like I was watching a movie—but it was real life. I just kept thinking, ‘Wow that’s really happening right now.’”
Junior Alpha Tessema, a Beaverton, Oregon native, reflected on his own experience.
“It didn’t seem real. It was like this sense of country that I had in my mind was very stable and strong. Like, ‘the USA is the best’ was the mantra in my mind,” he said. “September 11 sort of shattered that fantasy.”
Living on the West coast at the time definitely seemed like a different experience, Tessema added.
“We were affected by it but it wasn’t as real," Tessema said. "We woke up to the sirens of the East coast three hours ahead of us.”
Second year Divinity School graduate student, Brian Manchester, from Yorba Linda, California, expressed similar feelings.
“Having never traveled to New York, I felt somewhat disconnected,” Manchester said. “I cared, I felt for them, but it was kind of distant for me.”
Although the initial response for many West coasters was detached shock, September 11 revived a sense of community. We could not see the victims we were rallying to aid, but our efforts did not lack in zeal.
Teachers encouraged intellectual discussions amongst my fourth grade peers. Adults seemed more motivated to help. I noticed a spike in clothing and food drives, as well as an increase in community service amongst my community.
So yes, there were drives to help those directly affected by 9/11, but there was also more of a focus on bettering our local community and our relationships in general. Moments like these are opportunities to reflect on priorities.
That day's tragedy colored the way we see the world. Our generation takes it for granted because it is the only reality we have ever known (not many have vivid memories of the world before the fourth grade), but the September 11 attacks have changed the minor nuances of all of our lives.
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