There are moments in one’s life whereby reflection is constant. One of these moments for me, was the 911 attacks on September 11th 2001. I can distinctly recall sitting in my typography class trying to focus on my teacher while my phone constantly vibrated beside me. I kept looking at it, glaring back at my teacher and then back again wondering why so many of my family members were calling me. Thinking the worst, I left class to return my mother’s phone-call and in a frantic all I can remember is her yelling at me telling me to rush home.
Everything seemed like a foggy cloud, I was confused, scared and with hardly an ounce of information I planned my route home. School was almost 1 hour away by subway and I didn’t drive at the time. Headed for the subway terminal I rushed through a sea of people shoving and making their way through yelling, crying and scared- Toronto was trembling with terror. Everywhere I looked the city was in a panic – still clueless I ventured onto the train. With zero phone service on the crowded train I exited as soon as the doors opened to land to touch base with the outside world since no one appeared to know anything on the train except the words explosion, New York and hundreds of deaths. Called my mother once more, and realised I had exited but had no alternative way of getting on another train – they had been stopped and the only transportation that was running were the busses on land.
Without question I called up a friend and asked who had his very own car and asked him to drive me home from the terminal. Strangely enough he was also on his way home via train, and didn’t have access to his vehicle either. I was lost, had no idea how to take the busses to get me even close to home. Without question, my friend asked me where I was and headed to meet me so that he could bring me to a place where my mom could meet us to drive us home. I anxiously waited for him to arrive and in those moments I had heard of the horrific events that had taken place. Thousands of people dead, injured and without salvation -I sat there shocked.
My friend arrived equally worried, he sat beside me and gave me strength as we shared such unequivocal connections to people we hadn’t even met. We thought about our own families, and how we go about our days without knowing when we will take our last breath. We talked about how much the victims families must have been grieving, how little children would go without their parents into the world alone and how heartless the people reasonable for all of this could have been to commit such an act.
Then we realised, we were on ‘opposing’ sides of the fence – we were not equal, at least in the eyes of the world. Our hearts shared such empathy and such a connection, but we couldn’t possibly share the exact same feelings if we were not equal, could we?
He was of Islamic faith, while I was raised Catholic. In the world’s eyes, he was the monster and I was the target. How could this be when he was the first to rescue me when I needed him most, how could so many people be pointing fingers at a human being who is just that – human? We got home safely, and with a huge slap to the face we realised that the world around us was different. Not just because of the impact of 911 deaths and injuries, not because of the heartless acts of terrorists, but because of the fact that humans have the need to belong to a single side of the fence. They have the innate desire to associate ourselves with one side of the story, to look upon another without compassion but as objects filled with hatred instead. It is a fact that has and will forever keep the world divided, after all positive change is something that we strive for but never actually achieve.
Years after these events I still look back on that day, I think to myself how lucky I am to not only have lived through such a devastating world event, but I think about how fortunate I am to have the heart to look upon people with love dispute all that has happened. I feel as if the events that took place on that day in my own personal life situation, have changed me. Friendship and compassion for another is something humans need to have- connections, the key to keeping us from harm no matter your faith, religion or nationality.
