1 Step Forward, 2 Steps Back: 9/11, Iraq And Northern New York

To the North of Sackets lies Watertown, the commercial tie-in to Fort Drum Army Base. Fort Drum houses the 10th Mountain Division, which is a majority of the guys and girls trained for urban combat. Drum's been a pretty prominent feature in the area for years now, with many businesses relying on the military personnel as a main source of revenue. I'd always liked the area, in retrospect. The soldiers were crazy and shallow at times, but what large group of people isn't? They were alive, that's for sure. Those guys sure know how to raise hell.

I did my first two years at a small community college in Watertown, and I can clearly remember sitting in Intro Bio with Dr. Mark Fenlon when the planes hit. Needless to say, there was a cancellation of classes and rampant breakdowns.

The biggest thing I can remember from that day was my lone reaction to it. Everyone was crying or in shock...grieving, I guess. Not I; I was just angry.

It wasn't just your typical teen angst, I was angry at the situation. Why did no one in the entire country know what the hell was going on? Why was our President sitting in a classroom reading "My Pet Goat" after hearing it happened? We all learned that gem at a later date. Most of all, I was angry at the people around me. Of every single person I ran into that day, I was the only who wanted to know what would make people go to such extremes.

No one wanted to talk about it. It was nothing but a general outpouring of emotion, blindly directed at anyone who looked sympathetic.