9/11 and me
Louise Jones is the winner of the Channel 4 News Young Blogger 2010 competition. She will be blogging for Channel 4 News all week. You can read her winning post below:
The blog post below is an edited version of what I believe is my best and most popular blog post.
“The only memory I have of nine years ago is standing in my mum’s room watching the TV while she combed my hair into a bun for dancing. Seeing two buildings on fire, hearing the chaos and devastation, almost passed through me. I’d just turned eight. Not old enough to understand anything about that day, I just accepted it. I realised it was bad, but soon forgot and moved on to think about more important things, like which accessories I should get my new Barbie.
But that day was just the first of catastrophic events that I would, as I got older, absorb and begin to better understand. 2003 brought the official declaration of war on Iraq. Now 10, I knew what wars were, but like the Madrid bombings a year later, were happening in another country. I felt unaffected. ‘Let them get on with it, it’ll be fine’.
These scenes were the norm for a child like me. Nothing shocked me after 9/11. Explosions happen in Eastenders all the time – things always go back to normal, so why should I worry? The words ‘bomb’, ‘explosion’ or ‘terrorist’ became so familiar that if they weren’t mentioned on the news, I thought something was wrong.
In 2005 I was nearly 11, soon to leave primary school. I’d just done my big scary SATS to get into my secondary school. On Thursday 7th of July, a boy in my class walked in late. I knew something was amiss. My best friend Clare and I were at the end of the lunch queue.
We heard whispers first.
“It’s all on fire” he sobbed to his friend. “Loads of people have died, they’re all screaming and crying and trains exploded. My dad’s there! I think my dad’s dead, Adam!”
What?
I grabbed Clare’s cardigan and for the first time, felt the blood drain from my face and gather in my heart, which was pumping furiously. We looked at each other in confusion. I ran over, asking, “Is it true? Why’s it on fire? Is London near here?” He answered. “London’s right near here, there were bombs, explosions and fire. People are trying to blow us up!”
My mind raced. Clare and I rushed down the lunch hall and in a fluster, told everyone on our table what’d happened. They told the next table. Children started crying, then ran out to tell everyone on the playground. That lunch hall was our version of NYC on 9/11.
At 11, we knew this was bad. Desperate to know more, we all ran to our classroom and switched on the radio. We were stunned into silence. The noise was horrific. Crying. Screaming. My mind was transported back to my mum’s bedroom. The sounds were the same, but now I realised this was REAL. Friends burst into tears, shouting “MY DADDY WORKS IN LONDON!”. Teachers ran in, hearing the commotion, and switched off the radio. Comforting the crying ones, they said everything was going to be fine, their daddies would be okay. But this wasn’t a foreign country. This was twenty minutes away.
Now, at 17, I know how catastrophic those events were. Every year, I learn more from documentaries. But still, nothing shocks me. Every stabbing, every dead soldier or hostage, is an everyday thing in my world. That must sound awful, but I know nothing different. Terrorists have always existed, and wars are like schools. Necessary. When my generation is in charge of the world, will we be bothered about it? Or will it take something incredible, like the destruction of a whole country, to make us sit up and say “OMG”?
It began on 9/11.
You can read more from Louise Jones on her own personal blog Teen Dreaming.
There are 8 comments on this post
That is a really strong, impressive blog post.
I remember exactly where I was, too, on 7 July that year. In a roundabout, in York, on my way to a DEFRA conference on flooding. There were lots of London based people there and we all gathered around a little TV monitor, crying with worry. On my way back, the electronic traffic signs across the M1 said “London closed – avoid London”. Surreal.
Of course, I remember where I was on 9/11, too. And when Olof Palme was murdered. John Lennon. Even when Kennedy was shot, although it’s a distant memory, in black & white. I think most of us recall these moments, somehow. Thank you for sharing your memories.
Finally, congratulations to winning the Channel 4 News Young Blogger Competition – you seem to be a very worthy winner indeed and I wish you the best of luck with your future blogging. Look forward to reading more!
Hey Louise, great blog! I couldn’t have been runner-up to a more deserving winner. Your piece really spoke to me – I didn’t fully comprehend the ramifications of 9/11 until a few years down the line either. Like you say, we’ve grown up with constant reports of stabbings, torture and hostages. Are we immune now to this daily violence? I hope not but I’d definitely say your blog encapsulates the voice of the post-9/11 teenage generation.
I’ll be watching you on Channel 4 News tonight…
Actually it did not begin on 9/11. I suggest you read some history.As for terrorists the biggest happen to be the US military.The fact is that Britain and America have been virtually untouched by recent terrorism where as Iraq has been devastated by terrorism from the west and that includes the UK.We are the ones responsible for the deaths of up to 1 million Iraqis thru sanctions and hundreds of thousands of them thru our illegal invasion.If you are interested in how this world works then read up on some John Pilger and Noam Chomsky..Robert Fisk..etc..
Thanks for the reply. I’d just like to say that it began on 9/11 for ME as a 17 year old. It was the first major event to occur during my life that I can remember. Thanks again. Louise.
Louise, reading your blog took me back to 17 (nearly 50 years ago). Then we were convinced that we would not live to see 30 because of the threat from nuclear weapons. I have a feeling that is one of the reasons we turned out to be such lousy rulers of the country – we didn’t expect to be here!
Maybe your generation has the gumption to realise that violence solves nothing and serves no one except the extremist and the arms manufacturers.
Good luck
Louise. Congratulations. Your blog nearly made me cry.You deserved to win.
I was about the same age as you are now when I heard on the radio that President Kennedy had been shot.I was in the bathroom getting ready for a Youth Council meeting. I was late for that meeting as a result.
Like someone else said, at that time we all then thought we may soon be obliterated by nuclear bombing.
There were many memories in-between. I was staying with my mother when Princess Diana was killed. Mam was devastated.
By the time of 9/11 she became very confused and couldn’t understand it. The beginning of the end I’m afraid and she was in hospital within days and never came out. I couldn’t even be there.
By the time of 7/7 I, like you at 11 and perhaps since, could hardly relate. Such stories had become almost a part of everyday life so I’d become somewhat insensitised. Except that a few years earlier I had,for 2-3 years, arrived at Aldgate station every weekday on the very train that was blown up. Scary. At the time that I did that I had become used to the armed police protecting the City area.
Perhaps the world really has become a more dangerous place than it was in the 60s.
Good luck with your blog.
Congratulations on your blog! It was really powerful and you definitely deserved to win! Also I’d just like to say that your blog was inspiring, I’m now thinking of starting one of my own although I wasn’t confident enough before! Thanks for changing many people’s point of view and really getting your message across! xx
Louise, this is by far your best one! Love it
xxxx
And I feel priveledged to be mentioned in this