Three Years Later

I was teaching music theory that Tuesday morning at 8 am. The next class came in and one student was complaining about coming to that class. I ask why and she told me about the towers.

For a moment, I didn’t believe her. The rest of the class that came in supported her claim. I was in shock as I walked to my office. I saw my boss walking my way, and he asked me if I knew what was going on. I told him I did as I dialed my sister to see if she knew. I then called most of my friends to see if they knew. They all did.

I could really get any work done. I walk to see my friends at OIT and the classrooms in that building used their data projectors to show CNN. I saw for the first time both towers fall down on a thirty- foot screen. I was blown away. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It looked like a movie. But it was all real.

I talked to my friends, they had a TV with CNN also. All of us couldn’t believe it. We watched for a while and then decided to lunch together. We talked about who might have did it and what it meant for us. We were all still in shock.

I saw that a few classes were cancelled that afternoon. I didn’t want to have terrorists influence what I did, so I decided to teach my midi class. Most of my students came to class. I said that with the world gong crazy, sometimes doing the mundane things could give us solace. I did my best to sound like a Starfleet Captain.

September 11, 2001 changed my life as well as the world. People that couldn’t leave others alone, killed thousands of innocent people. This was the point in my timeline that changed everything.

When the first Shuttle blew up in the 80’s, I remember when that happen. When the second blew up, that was over my hometown. These were tragedies, but they didn’t really change the way we lived. September 11th did.

I refuse the let others change my life. I dedicated a composition to September 11th. It took me a whole year to compose and I premiered the work one year and one month after September 11, 2001. This was a way that I could express my emotions and thoughts about this tragedy, as a composer.

Click here to listen to the twelve compositions.


I hope that nothing like this will happen again. If it does, it won’t stop me from look forward to the future.

Me looking toward the Future