A decade on...

It's been ten years. 

Ten years since the day the world as we knew it changed. Ten years in which not much, and yet, everything has changed.

The blogosphere is full of posts about the 9/11 attacks and the effects they had on people and on the world we live in. All I want to share is where I was and what I was doing. I can barely remember my wedding day which was the same year, but I can remember the 10th September 2001 like it was yesterday.

I had come home early from work as my school, in South Africa, had closed early. We had a school production that evening. I made myself lunch and sat down to watch some TV. It was the only thing on TV… I watched the plane crash into the building and all I could think was “OMG Those poor people”
I watched it in horror until I had to go back to work. I remember texting Stud1 who was up at Uni and him telling me he was watching it online. I remember phoning my mum just so that I could talk to someone.
I remember wiping the shock from my face and entered my classroom - the first I taught - of 7 year olds with various disabilities and as I helped them get ready, I tried to explain as gently as possible that the “Awesome Movie Trailer” they had been watching wasn’t that awesome and that it was very real.

I watched my colleagues grieving for another country's people and knew that our world would never be the same.

The performance went on, as all shows must, but not without a 2 minutes silence for all the victims on the other side of the world.
It was one of the most surreal moments in my life and a turning point in my teaching career. After that I had to deal with my Muslim boy repeating the vitriol he heard at home to my Jewish boy during the school day. To this day I am adamant that in my classroom – religion is not what defines us, respect is – leave religion at the door.

It was also the day my grandpa’s car that he had lent me to learn to drive was stolen.

Is it a vivid memory for you too? Even if you weren't directly affected by it?