It was a late
night, 11pm, back in 2001. I was tired of studying and barely came back home. It was common
to high school students staying for self-study until 10pm at school even after official school
class is over. My daily schedule was to wake up at 6am, take a van to get
school at 6:30am, start the first class at 7:30am, take classes until 5pm, and force
to study obligatory until late night. It was like an examination hell.
September 11, 2001, was already 13 years ago from now, but I still remember
that day so clearly. I arrived at home at 11pm as usual, and my dad gravely opened the door and
said, “The World Trade Center in the U.S.
has been collapsed by the terrorist!” When I first heard the news, I had no
idea what that meant. I had not heard about the World Trade Center before, and I
was also exhausted at that moment, so I did not understand what he was talking about. But when
I watched the breaking news, I was so shocked to see that people were jumping from
an imposing burning skyscraper. They were falling headfirst and plunging
thousands of feet to death. More than 1,000 people in the North Tower who were
at or above the point of plan crash were caught in the building and suffocated
by smoke inhalation, fire and flames, were killed when the building was
collapsed eventually, or jumping from the tower to escape the burning tower.
Today was September 11, the date when North and South Tower of the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon were collapsed by terrorists’ suicide attacks. In
commemoration of the 9/11, I searched the 9/11 news archives and read them. The
story was just unbelievable. The horrifying scene of this disaster shocked me
again, and my eyes ached with tears. Why did this tragedy have to happen? Are
we living in a better place now? Unfortunately, there is still no time to feel
at ease. President Barack Obama has recently ordered to hunt down Sunni
extremist group, ISIS, in Syria as well as in Iraq. I am so agnostic about a
terror, religious history, politics, and international circumstances. Why are
people fighting to the last?
It is quite surprising for me that so many military discipline accidents in
South Korea have been openly reported. Shooting gunfire at random, throwing a
hand grenade to comrades, beating a private up real bad to death, treating even
senior as a outcast, being killed by a armored car… Many young people in
military lose their life or are severely injured by an accident. In Africa, 6
countries have still been suffering from Ebola virus, and people are also dying
of many other diseases and infections.
It takes a long time to climb to the top of a hill, but it is just the winking
of an eye when people are falling off. It would only take a few seconds that a
falling man’s head hit the ground from the tall building. I am afraid of the fact that I
never know if the accident would also happen to me. Sometimes, days have been
scary because I have a bad hunch that something are likely to happen in the wind. In
Africa, I alarm myself whenever I walk at night and have hard time to cool
down right away when a speeding vehicle just passes right next to me. Where is
my peace of mind? Living in the countryside would be the safest way to prolong
my life to the maximum. But ironically, I cannot be pushed into the corner of a room and tremble
with fear. I do not want to be serious any more, and I always want to say
upbeat story on the blog. Maybe, I am lost in thought so many times, and have
bunch of worrying lists. I like Tanzania because something serious would not
seem to happen. However, nobody knows and says when an eternal peace will come.
Understanding happiness and peace is somewhat ludicrous because I am not even
sure whether they actually exist. People may laugh off if I say such and such about peace. Is it unreachable? I hope that nothing will happen tomorrow,
moreover, even now. I want to be an ascending man, not a falling man.
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