Listen Here
Column By Nicole Diederich, Ph.D., Professor of English and Lead College Credit Plus Faculty Liaison
Being a military man, (University of Findlay President) Dr. (DeBow) Freed did not immediately cancel classes on 9/11 and once we were back in the classroom later that week, what could we even possibly do? To pretend that we were going to have class as usual, to pretend to provide a sense of normalcy, simply wasn’t possible. It had been surreal the evening before to look up at a clear blue sky with no airplane traffic and then look down at my two-year-old running around with her friends epitomizing the expression “innocence is bliss.” I had wondered – how will her life change? What will she now not experience that she would have otherwise, and I don’t mean just in terms of security checks for air travel.
Facing my Gender Studies class (when we could still have a Gender Studies class) that first day back in the classroom, I just made room for them to talk, to share what they’d heard, to ask questions for which I had no answer, and, to write. Of course, as a writing professor who believes writing gives us the opportunity to put down our thoughts and reflect on them, we took time to reflect. September 14 was a national day of prayer and remembrance and I wrote down my own thoughts. I sealed them in an envelope that day. I opened it for the first time to write this piece. Here are some excerpts from what I wrote then.
- “I think of the victims . . . . the children on the planes. The people in the buildings. Phone calls. . . . I think of those that went to work late and therefore lived.”
- “Obviously this event has changed my life and the lives of all of us and in ways yet unforeseen . . . I will be more cautious, less trusting, and more fearful for myself and my family, especially when traveling. I fear that we as a people will never regain a sense of peace and freedom that we previously took for granted. . . . We’ve lost peace, security, freedoms, safety – and the illusions that we had all this to start with.”
- “I’ve been shaken, but from this I hope to rise up with a new perspective, of a life renewed with living with honor, humility, and love – to give that honor back to the victims. . . . I’m awed and overwhelmed by both the tragedy and the resolve it has brought forth. . . . This is my remembrance and my prayer.”
Reading those words twenty-five years later takes me back and, again, moves me to tears.
