 Hey, welcome back to my channel, guys. Today I thought I'd talk about 9-11. This video will air on 9-11 in the US and I just thought I would share my personal story as to what it was like when 9-11 hit as an American. I know most of my audience are New Zealanders or Australians and so I thought that this might be an interesting topic just to hear about what it was like actually living there and going through it and some other interesting stories I'm going to share as well in relation to that whole topic so you're not going to miss it. Stay tuned, subscribe below. Here we go. Where was I 9-11 when the attacks happened on the World Trade Center? I was 25 at the time. I was just pregnant with my first child and I was teaching at the university in Milwaukee and I remember it so clearly. Basically I was teaching and one of my students raised her hand. The student that you know always is trying to get out of doing whatever we're doing in class and he was like a plane just you know rammed into the World Trade Center and I was like okay anyway moving on like totally didn't believe him like he was like I don't know then he raised his hand. He didn't know really a plane just went into the World Trade Center and I'm like okay well obviously the the pilot was you know something happened and that's horrible but we're going to continue this lesson because he was just to me I felt like he was just trying to get out of it and you know at that point when the first plane came we didn't nobody knew it was a terrorist attack right so and then you know what was it I don't know about 20 minutes later another student raising another plane hit the other tower and I was like wait what and so we all kind of stopped and tried to figure it out and it was different back in 2001 like I mean there was the internet but it wasn't the same with smartphones and you got most of your information from the tv so we ended class early and I was in grad school as well so I ended up just deciding to go home and study from there and doing what I need to do and I just remember spending the whole day sitting in front of the tv watching the news and it was so interesting at the time because the news was just nobody knew what was happening like I mean you could just seeing it as it's developing like the reporters the anchor people on tv were just like we don't know what's going on and then when the towers come down it was it was shocking and like you can hear the reporters talking like you know nobody's anticipating any of this because it really required a mind shift it was like it's when something happens like that that you can't even possibly like make up in your mind that this could ever happen you don't know what to do with it your brain is like I don't know what to do with this information and making any sort of sense from it so you can see that if you watch the new documentary on Netflix about 9-11 I haven't gotten through the whole thing but it's really good and it reminds me and you can see some of these tv broadcasts talking about uh yeah talking like you know they're shocked they don't really know what to say they don't know how to define it it was just kind of like a crazy turn of events and it was just horrible and you're just like watching it and and there was a lot of fear as to like is there going to be another one what's going to happen next if they can make this happen if they've gotten through our security or you know all of our uh CIA and FBI anybody that would be paying attention to these terrorists like how is this happening and so yeah I just remember being quite yeah you just you don't understand it your brain doesn't know how to handle it I remember personally feeling like you know I'm about to bring a child into this world and extra stress with that like just fear of safety like these people were just going to work that day because people were just getting on a plane um from multiple different cities and and so you're like holy cow and so you're just like mentally like you just don't really know what to do with that and obviously I wasn't in New York I was in Wisconsin I wasn't you know in the midst of it I didn't have anybody that would possibly have been in the tower but man it was just like it's just it's I just remember watching the tv and people having no idea what to think about this what to do about this about those people trapped in those upper uh those uh upper floors that were above where the crash hit and oh my goodness and then seeing that plane go into the Pentagon oh my goodness it was it was an experience now I haven't had the chance to visit the site in New York City where it happened in the big memorial and I heard it's really really cool and would really like to see that someday um but yeah I just remember feeling after that like I think that the documentary expresses it well and that everybody felt scared like traveling again like do I get on a plane scared to be in a big city uh scared to be in a you know a tall building um I think people were angry I think that we don't understand why somebody would hate us so much that they would do something like that like there's just so much we didn't understand uh and now you know after the fact and you see a little bit of history with it you know it becomes a little bit more clear um and then now that we've had 20 years you know we have a little bit more understanding of what's going on and so it's yeah but I have to say as an as an American you know and I haven't been in the U.S. in the last three years so I didn't experience a pandemic I didn't experience the last election um personally so I can't really speak to that but I can say I remember after Nine of Len was probably the last time I felt that our nation was united um whether you like George Bush or not I think we all felt united about um about what just happened that there's now you know a war on terror you know we all felt like this wasn't okay that something needs to happen something needs to come to justice um whether you think we handled it right or not you know in the moment at the time you know I I guess I remember just feeling like uh they were taking control of it and they were dealing with it it wasn't just like this you know you felt like they were just speaking to you and not really doing anything or where I felt many times that way um over other issues but this one we felt like everybody was rather united um that you know leadership was stating that it was unacceptable and that this is not okay and um you know justice needed to happen whatever that is and then of course soon after that became everybody opinions about how it should be handled and everybody kind of changed their thoughts about that so you know that changes but I just remember in that moment and after it happened I felt very united uh as a nation. Another story I'd like to share is something that happened in 2014 while working in New Zealand uh so this was quite a bit after the 9-11 attacks and you know various things are happening in the Middle East between the U.S. and you know Iran Iraq I get Afghanistan Saudi Arabia like it was just there's just a lot like I'm not going to try to do a history lesson but I'm just going to um share with you a story a true story that happened to me um in New Zealand so I was working uh in Wellington City and we had hired a new lady who was from Baghdad she was from Iraq she was from Baghdad from the capital city that we had troops in to try to you know manage the terrorists and to keep them out at the time and or up really the couple years before that I think you know it's just like it's it's it's fuzzy in my head but it wasn't for her so we she it was coming around and meeting all the new people or all the people at work because she was new and um you know she was introduced to me and she was like oh are you American and I was like yep and she was like literally no joke she's from Baghdad she like fell to the ground thank you thank you and like kind of grabbed my legs and like thank you thank you thank you to your president who who brought in the troops and uh for protecting us against you know whatever she started listing all these names and I was like wait what I mean I was speechless I was like of course there's nothing really to do with me but I represented to her the people that came and saved her she's like my whole family is in Baghdad your troops are protecting us we get you know they would have no protection whatsoever you know without them being there and occupying that city and and she was like can I have your whole family for dinner can what can I give you and it was just like I mean just the the emotion in her face the plea the thankfulness the anyway whatever you believe and think about this topic about us you know American stepping in and um protecting different parts of the Middle East or you know anything like that like I don't know I'm just sharing my story that that was an experience I had never expected in a million years and she was always just like you know she just really wanted to thank me and have me over and just didn't work out because of really religious there you know um yeah her husband really wasn't up for that but we uh but it was just so eye-opening to me I guess that uh you know what whether you know you agree with it or not what we were doing in Iraq in a Baghdad were affecting people and families and she was coming to me and just thanking me for that and so I thought I'd share that story because that was one of those times where you're just like wow wow this this just really brought it personal to me and brought it home for me um you know you know whether you feel like you have an obligation to countries that can't protect themselves or not I don't know that's an interesting thing to think about um especially with all that's going on with Afghanistan now and pulling out and I just kind of really highlights that story for me I've been thinking about it this week and it's hard there's no easy answers to any of this well I hope you enjoyed my video this week um I know it's a little serious in nature but I thought that you would really enjoy a personal story since it's very relevant right now at the 20th anniversary so comment below with your story let me know your experience or what it was like being in this part of the world in New Zealand Australia and what you experienced during 9-11 I would love to hear that so I'll see you guys next week subscribe below talk to you later