September 11th 2001

by Megan Langley Funk

At first, the morning of September 11th seemed like an ordinary one. I had an 8 a.m. class, which was brutal for a college freshman. Not only was it early, but I also had to walk all the way from South Cunningham up the steep hill to Hull (before Brock Commons existed). Little did I know what was happening during my Intro to Education class. In a time before social media, we rarely knew what was occurring in the world at an exact moment. I didn’t have a cell phone, and for those who did, surely they weren’t allowed to have it on during class. We were in our own little world since no one knew to turn on the TV. On my way to my 9 a.m. Chemistry class in Stevens, I passed some other students on the sidewalk talking about a plane crashing into a building. I only heard a few seconds of their conversation, so I assumed they were talking about a movie and didn’t think any more of it. Chemistry class had been canceled, though I didn’t know why at the time. When I went back to the dorm, I noticed the door to my room was left wide-open. Even though my roommate and I had only been living together for a few weeks, I knew that she didn’t like keeping our door open like some other people on the hall did. Immediately I knew something was up. She was clearly upset, and then I saw what she was watching on TV. I’ll never forget seeing the Twin Towers billowing with black smoke. My roommate kept trying to call her mom in case her mom was working at the Pentagon that day, which she luckily wasn’t. I tried to call my parents, but the phone lines weren’t working for quite some time. Eventually when I did get in touch with them, my mom insisted that I come home. I managed to convince her that I was safe—Farmville seemed less like to be attacked by terrorists than my home, not far from Fort Lee. I had only been in college for a few weeks, the longest I had ever been away from home, and I was already having to make decisions that could potentially mean life or death; I wasn’t even 18 yet. Experiencing 9/11 put so many things into perspective. I felt silly (and guilty) for having complained about the hill up to Hull. I cherished friendships more than before, especially the new ones I created with people from my hall—we all had lived through 9/11 together.

So many major events happened while I was a Longwood student. September 11th. Longwood College becoming a University. Campus construction. More construction. The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. Hurricane Isabel. The launch of Facebook. And of course, all of the personal events that occurred in my life. Longwood memories—the good and the bad—will forever be with me.