I sat in a cold plastic chair in the school's computer lab, starring blankly into the screen. My orange carrot cursor hung dead in the air, with a computer horse waiting for me to come back and play. The teacher then turned off the lights and we were told to give a moment of silence for the people of Columbine High School. I was in the fifth grade and I was just told that there had been a shooting. I felt really sorry and scared for the people involved. When the lights came back on, signaling that it was time to get back to my digital steed, I felt sick to my stomach. After school, the bus dropped us off at our brown raised ranch and I went straight to the living room, to flip on the TV. Even though I felt uneasy, I needed to know more information. I wanted to know what the school couldn't tell us. Columbine was all over the news, showing a mass of people huddled together. Students and teachers had been killed or injured, by two troubled boys. The more information I heard, the more I felt lucky to be where I was. Comfortable and alive.
The next year, in the sixth grade, I felt like most of my time was spent outside, waiting in a single file line. We had a lot of confused kids in our midst as well and they were really big on bomb threats. Nothing ever happened to us, except for the kids that got caught, they were in a world of trouble; but the lingering threat that our school could be blown up was unsettling. I was so afraid that news reporters were going to come and video tape us standing outside our school. As if they could swoop in and deliver us some bad news, like how I heard about Columbine.
I remember ushering in 2000 with these enormous yellow glasses. The glasses themselves were just the numbers "2000", with holes for your eyes in the middle of the two 0's. I loved those glasses and I loved promise that the new millennium brought. This was not to say that I wasn't scared, at the same time, that the world would end. My parents bought into the Y2K paranoia purchasing an excessive amount canned goods and water. I was happy that we were prepared, just in case, but I was praying that things would continue on; and of course they did. In a way that no one ever anticipated.
2001 is a year that most Americans can recall well, as a life changing event happened on September 11th. My Grandmother died the day before at only 60 years old. I lost my favorite listener and best friend. We were really close and I was very upset about her passing; but at the same time I was happy she didn't have to see the Twin Towers fall. The scene of the burning buildings, ash falling everywhere, with people running scared would have devastated her. Every channel was replaying the plane crashes again and again. It was like a bad roller coaster ride that you couldn't get off.
Two years later our country went to war in Iraq. This war got news coverage unlike any other before with the Internet readily available. Videos were uploaded of bombings and shootings. With the click of a button you were on the front line, seeing everything that the soldiers saw. Most were too graphic for me to stomach. Turning on the TV was like an instant horror movie, complete with lost lives and real life injuries. Stories of bombings and death tolls were becoming more and more frequent. I had to take a break from watching the news because every morning there were more gruesome things to recount from over seas.
When the TV was turned off, I would often sit in silence. The stillness allowed me to collect myself and process what I saw. Although all of these events are certainly scary, there comes a time where you just have to be brave. You can't be sad or live in fear anymore. I think all Americans had to do that. Desensitize themselves just to carry on. That has played a big part of our history.
2001 is a year that most Americans can recall well, as a life changing event happened on September 11th. My Grandmother died the day before at only 60 years old. I lost my favorite listener and best friend. We were really close and I was very upset about her passing; but at the same time I was happy she didn't have to see the Twin Towers fall. The scene of the burning buildings, ash falling everywhere, with people running scared would have devastated her. Every channel was replaying the plane crashes again and again. It was like a bad roller coaster ride that you couldn't get off.
Two years later our country went to war in Iraq. This war got news coverage unlike any other before with the Internet readily available. Videos were uploaded of bombings and shootings. With the click of a button you were on the front line, seeing everything that the soldiers saw. Most were too graphic for me to stomach. Turning on the TV was like an instant horror movie, complete with lost lives and real life injuries. Stories of bombings and death tolls were becoming more and more frequent. I had to take a break from watching the news because every morning there were more gruesome things to recount from over seas.
When the TV was turned off, I would often sit in silence. The stillness allowed me to collect myself and process what I saw. Although all of these events are certainly scary, there comes a time where you just have to be brave. You can't be sad or live in fear anymore. I think all Americans had to do that. Desensitize themselves just to carry on. That has played a big part of our history.
This is nicely done--a lot of week 2s read as if the student is writing about some weird world they never heard of before they took this course. You write as if you've been living on this planet and that shows by the confident writing, the careful choice of material, the way you weave your life and thoughts through the material. No argument here!
ReplyDeleteThank you very much!
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