Okay, so lets set the stage here. 9/11 happens. I’m pretty young at the time, and I don’t remember shit about it.
Several years pass. I don’t remember exactly how old I was, but I wasn’t even 10 yet. I develop an absurd obsession with Aviation Disasters. I watch a lot of Seconds from Disaster about this, eventually learning that Human Error is my least favorite cause of incidents because nothing funny happened to the plane.
However.
I learn about 9/11 in school and my first thought is “this is fuckin rad” because there was a big aviation disaster. I love that shit. I learn that this happened because it was deliberate. I then discard this information because it’s no longer necessary. Queue the start of my 9/11 Simulation Era.
I use everything. Boxes, cans, whatever is stackable. A few times, I make a cardboard airplane. My parents are none the wiser because they just think I love airplanes (which is true, but only part of it). This goes on for some time.
Now, the museum I mentioned in those tags was called the “Imaginarium” or something like that. Childrens interactive museum. Lotsa fun stuff, and my family took me there often. One of the things they have here (which is, of course, my favorite exhibit) is a flight simulator cabinet.
One day, my obaachan takes me to the Imaginarium. I take my time, perusing through all the exhibits, making the big bubble, playing with the air cannon, all that jazz. All the while, I’m SUPER excited to get to the end, where the flight sim is.
The flight sim is running some version of microsoft flight simulator and is locked on a cesna of some sort. It has fully functioning foot pedals, throttle, and flight control. I eat this shit up every time for as long as whoever is taking me will let me. You probably already know the shape of this.
The space they have you fly over is like, a small city with surrounding countryside. As luck would have it, the city has two buildings of remarkably similar height next to each other. Sure, I’m piloting a cesna and not a passenger liner, but I don’t care. I’m in the moment, I’m fucking crazed out of my tiny child MIND about 9/11, and I can do ANOTHER simulation. In my head, I’m the second plane. I get close enough to the ground (having played the simulator a lot, certainly enough to be familiar with the controls), and I set course, full throttle, for the Second Tower.
As I collide (and the plane bounces around because the game doesn’t do exploding planes for some reason lol), I say aloud, and very audibly, “Oh my god, they hit the second tower.” Or something to that effect.
It’s maybe been 5 or so years since 9/11, so while it’s not 100% fresh in peoples memories, it’s near the surface of a lot of people’s minds. The attendant at the counter not far from where I’m sitting looks at me after I say this, makes a 100% correct read on what I’m fucking doing and what’s going on, looks at my obaachan and tells her in no uncertain terms that we need to leave and that “this disrespect cannot be tolerated here.”
I don’t go to that museum again for many many years, and when I do finally return (for a field trip or something), the flight sim is gone.
But it’s okay because I pestered a great many of my caretakers (including my foster parent at one point) with my 9/11 sims, and I’d do it again in a fuckin caffeinated heartbeat.
Honestly, getting kicked out of that museum and losing access to that flight sim was my own personal 9/11
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