The Last Normal Day Of My Life

For all of us in life, there are defining moments which create a permanent before and after period in our lives where, from that point onward, something is forever changed. For me, one of those days was a Monday many years ago. I was a Junior in High School. Keep in mind that here in the south school starts in early August, so I had already been in the 11th grade for a month – by that time, while it’s still hot as hell outside the feeling of Summer freedom had already faded and the grind of classwork — Algebra, American History, Biology, and the like were all part of the daily grind for me. The routine was wake up, go to school, come home, do homework, watch some anime and play some games on the PlayStation, then go to sleep and do it all over again. Such was the life of a high school student around Y2K.

This Monday, however, was something a bit special — it was my sisters second birthday. Yes, a 14 year age difference between she and I was always quite odd, but, well, it was what it was. I don’t recall that school day at all — I know for a fact I went, as I didn’t miss a single day that school year – quite the special accomplishment given I traditionally have tended to get sick easily. The best I can figure is once I got home we had the birthday event which I distinctly recall happened at one of my sisters dad’s relatives homes out in the middle of fucking nowhere.

This was the cool middle of nowhere, however, with lots of backwoods to explore, and the house the party was at happened to have two other teens just a bit younger than me living there. They were people I rarely saw, but always had fun with, and I recall that day us talking about usual teenager things like games, and wandering around the back woods until sunset.

It’s funny, really, that that day having happened left such an impact on me, yet I can’t remember much in the way of details. For me, while it was my sisters birthday it was also just another day, beyond that. One that was unique, but beyond that fact nothing actually special in the long run.

I had no idea that would be, far and away, the last “normal” day I would ever have in my life, as no less than 12 hours later from the time we went home the World Trade Center would be in flames and I would be sitting in Biology class hearing hints of a major event happening that we could all tell based on the reactions of the teachers and the tension in the air was something extremely serious.

Of course, that day, the last normal day of my life, was September 10th, 2001. As I said, my sisters second birthday, and the day before all of America and, for lack of a better phrasing, the free world, would change forever.

I don’t need to tell anyone what happened in the days, weeks, months, and eventually years following that day… For all the crazy things I had grown up with in the 90’s — the Gulf War, Waco, Oklahoma City, and Columbine, among so many other things, I still felt “safe” in the world. Up to that last day, I felt like things were okay and I was going to become an adult in a world of stability, as I had felt the 90’s were, especially through the Clinton administration.

In just a few short hours, all hope of such was lost. I knew what was to come, even though others in my classes on that day thought we “wouldn’t go to war” and that things would somehow be fine, I knew following this things would be different. I didn’t know how, I just knew that September 12th, and no other day after the 11th, would be the same as September 10th, 2001 — the last normal day of my life.