Most of us, if you were alive in 2001, remember where we were this day, when we heard the news first of the plane crashing into the towers then the second and then them falling. We were all watching the news horrified no matter where we were.
I was in second period Spanish class, 11th grade, I was 16 years old. We first had a school wide assembly and we were terrified, what happened? It was vague the information initially relayed to us in that assembly, we were having a National Crisis, an attack on American ground- what!? Then back to class and the TVs were rolled in on carts, we were shocked what were we watching. By the time the tvs were turned on in my classroom the first plane had hit a tower… a mistake surely…what is going on…then I remember seeing the second one hit the second tower, we were in shock.
Lives changed for millions of people that day, so many family members lost from people in the planes, working in the towers, and the police and first responders who got to the scene to help and save lives. Lives changed in other ways too, our airport security had a major uphaul and TSA became much tighter, no liquids, so shoes on, no electronics. Our sense of safety was forever shaken, it wasn’t since Pearl Harbor had we had a foreign attack on our soil of such magnitude. We as a country were in crisis.
And I think it changed those of us who were teengers and young adults at this time. We had lived such a glorious, safe, normal childhood in the 1990’s and after surviving Y2K (which turned out to be a nothing burger but was very stressful leading up to the year 2000 at midnight) here was another national emergency, it seemed like the 2000’s were doomed just as we prepared to head for college.
So the attack of 9/11 happened in September 2001, in February 2002 my beloved grandmother Margaret died, in May 2002 I turned 17, early summer 2002 I attend CLT (Christian leadership training at Camp Cho-Yeh, and had the time of my life – looking back this was a mania blip), and by end of summer 2002 I was having a mental health crisis (deep depression dip) as I started my senior year of high school. So little less than a year after 9/11 I was breaking down. I wouldn’t be properly diagnosed as Bipolar though until 2004 when I had a major manic episode the end of the second semester of my freshman year at Baylor University.
My world came crashing apart in 2002 and now looking back I wonder if both the stress of my grandmother dying and 9/11 contributed to that. I have never really been the same since being diagnosed with Bipolar disorder and unfortunately my brain will never go back to normal. I will always need medicine and need to see a psychiatrist and take extra good care of myself with sleep, and diet, and exercise, and regulating my emotions. I will just always have more to manage and be on top of than the average person my age. And that is ok, so many people struggle with some sort of mental health issue and we are not alone.
9/11 was a devastating event and changed countless lives that day. Moving forward I hope nothing as catastrophic happens in my lifetime or at all going forward…We can only hope…
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