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The Daily Illini Online
published Friday, September 14, 2001
I'll always remember that plane. The plane I, along with the rest of world, saw slam into the World Trade Center. Now, many hours after the incident I still find the amount of destruction and death too massive to truly comprehend. So I try to do the one thing that helps me to understand stunning events like this one. I try to place myself there. I close my eyes, and I place myself on the plane that slammed into the World Trade Center. I try to imagine what I would have been thinking at the moment I realized that I had maybe five or 10 minutes left on this Earth.
As I do that, I am amazed about how many things wouldn't have mattered at that moment. I wouldn't have cared what designer label clothes I had on, I wouldn't have cared if I was getting my master's, going to law school or flipping burgers. I wouldn't have cared what girl thought I was cute or who considered me cool or popular. I wouldn't have given another second of thought to any person I had ever felt had done me harm, or hurt my feelings.
In those final moments all that would have mattered was the people I had loved and the people who had loved me. All I would have hoped is that in my brief time on this Earth I would have done something to make somebody smile, to make someone laugh, I would have hoped that I had given my assistance whenever it was asked for or needed.
In that moment I was reminded again of what matters in this world. Sadly it took the death of thousands to do it. So on this national day of mourning, I have decided I will pick a time and I will stop everything. Cut off the TV, put away the Play Station 2, unplug the phone and try to remember how short and how beautiful life can be. Then I will try to honor those lost the only way I can, by being more generously, by showing more love to those that know me and those that don't, by squashing any petty, insignificant squabbles I had with anyone for any reason.
I might not succeed at this effort all the time, but God help me I'm going to try. I'm going to do what I can to change myself and by doing so change the world. And to those that laugh and say that one person can't do that I leave you with this: Most news reports have stated that this attack was done by three planes, each one with about three hijackers. That's nine people. Nine people who made the world take notice for the most horrific of reasons. If nine people can create such negative energy, maybe nine more can start moving things in the other direction. Even if we can't, we can try. We owe it to everyone around us to try.
Adam Thurman
graduate student