#TWO TOWERS DENIZEN TV#

As diplomat kids, missionary kids, corporate kids or whatever else living abroad, we were expected to represent the United States on our teenage shoulders with everything that we did. In talking with fellow 20-something American Third Culture Kids, I saw that this was a recurring theme. I am an American, but it didn’t feel like it was an attack on me. I felt terrible about the attacks, but felt disconnected by what happened in New York City. I was excused from my social studies class with another American friend, but I was comforting others more than mourning. The American students – or ones with ties to the attacks – could leave their classes to use the computers in the administrative offices to send emails. With the wide range of international backgrounds, some were just finding out about the events from the evening before, while others asked out loud, “Why are we in school today? Shouldn’t we be at home mourning?” Other students shrugged off the news – this happens all the time in my country, they seemed to think, welcome to the club. That morning at my school, the Shanghai American School, the hallways were more chaotic and crowded than usual. It wasn’t until the next day that it hit me. We constantly heard about bombings and shootings around the world. I remember the sepia tones of the television screen as smoke clouded the area around the World Trade Center.

#TWO TOWERS DENIZEN TV#

My father, an American diplomat with the consulate, was sitting in our TV room watching CNN when he called me downstairs. At that same moment thousands of miles away, I was a high schooler getting ready for bed in Shanghai, China.

11, it was a beautiful early morning in New York. Before the first plane hit the towers on Sept.

Two towers denizen