September 11, 2001 started out as any other days sorta. I had an adorable daughter starting her first week of kindergarten. At four years old and I wasn't so sure it was the right thing to do to, send her off like that. She was so young compared to all the others. But smart and brave, my baby boarded the bus with her backpack and private school uniform and waved. I settled in to the routine of professional at home mother. I was a rarity then, most moms working, but I had this June Cleaver complex so I threw laundry in the washing machine and began folding wash as I watched the Today Show. Wondering what to make for dinner and debating if I should go to the gym or work on the garden of the new house I had just bought weeks earlier.
As I watched the cut in of a plane hitting the tower I thought 'oh boy there's a disaster'. Never realizing the scope, and of course, the second hit and it was no longer an accident but a deliberate act of terrorism. I got up and bolted. Jumped in my car and flew to the school my daughter was in to find it in lock down surrounded by police cars with doors open. Numerous politicians children attended that school, and the full force was there to protect them.
They wouldn't let me through
"Fuck you my kids in there', Pretty much summed it up. Cuz there I stood all 5' 4'' of me toe to toe with jar heads twice my size not budging until the school principal gave them the 'all clear' to let me in. I would have busted down the door- I would have ended up in jail but I would be with that girl no matter what.
I entered the shut down school and cut through o the kindergarten room where the children played- I took over so the teacher could go watch the news. We sang songs, we sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider", we sang "Down By The Bay" and we did crazy dance moves while outside the police circled and in the offices the staff cried and prayed.
I have this theory- if the worlds about to end I'm going down dancing. I can't stop anything, I can't save anyone, but I was full ready to usher those 25 five year olds out of this world doing the hokey pokey.
I could use this post as a giant forum for my beliefs on the 9/11 tragedy, I can give you my political view points, my thoughts on the military. I choose not too.
I will say that I had a scare with this event, my brother a captain of industry, had left on a flight to Washington DC. I was unable to find him for awhile but he was fine, intrigued a the events cuz he's a bit of a weirdo. We would in months to follow rehash the events, he always shakes his head and wonders why my thoughts are so abstract in these matters.
Was I horrified? Well, not on that day, I wasn't. I was fascinated at how unreal it all seemed. Was I scared? No, I was a mother making sure children weren't scared instead.
There are things out of our control, there are situations we never anticipate. There are those of us who run to be with the people we love most and there are those who become paralyzed in fear. I learned that day that I am not afraid of anything, that I will knock down any door and shove aside every obstacle to remain side by side with the little girl in the plaid dress who does a really bad ass hokey pokey.. even to this day.