A Global Community

Last night, I was doing something fairly normal. Emily had been bugging me for a few days to play Kingdom Hearts so she could watch and try to read some of the dialogue. While I was trying to beat a boss battle, something horrible happened in Paris.

Once I got online, while Emily was getting her pj's on. I started reading about it. My Facebook feed was filled with pictures of the Eiffel Tower, words of comfort in French and the Twitter hashtag for people in Paris to use to find somewhere safe to go.

It reminded me of a day many years ago. I was in my last year of college, and I was playing a video game because I didn't have class until later. One of my roommates came to my door to tell me that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center.

Even though I don't live in France, last night made me feel a little like it was 9/11 all over again. I thought it might just be me because I've been feeling anxious and out of sorts this week. But when I posted my feelings on Facebook, several friends said that they felt the same.

Thanks to the internet, I have friends all over the world. Granted most of them live in the US, but spread out. I do have friends across the pond and in other countries. My friends, even though I only know most of them via the internet, are very important to me. In one group, a friend posted that she loved us all. The feeling was quite mutual, for I love my friends very much even if I've never met them in person.

We are becoming a global community thanks to the internet. We can share our sorrow for the lives lost in Paris, and huddle around the computer to get information. But we can also use this internet to comfort one another in times of tragedy. We share our joys as well.

I'll have more to say about the goodness that can come from social media later. But I'm very happy to be part of a global community. It has allowed me to become friends with some awesome people I would never have met without the internet.

9/11 Memories

Image: Wikipedia.org

Since today is 9/11, I thought I post some memories I have of that day in 2001.

I was still in college at that point and living with some friends. I didn't have any early classes that day so I had been in my room playing a video game all morning. My door had been open and one of my roommates popped his head in to tell me that there was an attack in New York.

Classes ended up being canceled so I spent most of the day watching the news in shocked horror. A bunch of people ended up coming over to our apartment but we didn't talk much.

I did end up on the phone with my mom, who told me to go get gas in my car. I went out by myself for some reason and it was eerie out there. There were hardly any cars out except for the long lines at the gas stations. I had to wait a while to get gas and it was so quiet despite all the people also waiting to get gas.

I also ended up going out with some friends to get gas in their car. That was a little better because we were talking some and it wasn't so lonely.

The next few days were strange as well as more news came out about the attacks. It was a sad and strange week for me because my grandmother passed away a few days after 9/11 happened.

Eventually things resumed normalcy, but on this day I’m always taken back to the horror of that day. I didn't know anyone who died in either New York, the plane that went down or the Pentagon, but it was still something that I think changed everyone in America that day.