one...two...three?

Natural History Museum

When I was eleven, two planes were flown into the World Trade Centre in New York, killing thousands of people. I first heard about it before school, reported as a plane crash on an ABC news bulletin (the 'A' here signifying' Australian'). I didn't understand the scale of it until later. Up until this point in my life, I hadn't even heard of the Twin Towers. But after that fateful day, it would dominate news broadcasts and playground conversations for months. A year later, we would still be reeling from it. Even today, this event continues to affect airline safety worldwide.

This year, nearly two months before my twenty-first birthday, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck the north-east coast of Japan, right near Sendai. It triggered a tsunami that is believed to be over ten metres high. Some affected areas may never be reclaimed from the sea. In these three months of natural disasters, this effected me the most. Even though Toowoomba, where many of my family lives, was hit by an inland tsunami, even though Rockhampton, where I grew up, and Brisbane, where I live, were flooded, the Japan Disaster rocked me greater than these. It wasn't the scale; it had rocked me long before I knew that. It was a spirit thing.

Those two tie for most significant. But I had trouble determining the third. Do I list the death of Princess Diana when I was seven, or the election of the first female Prime Minister of Australia last year? Do I list the day Australia officially entered the Iraq War when I was thirteen, or the Bali Bombings when I was twelve? Do I list the election of the first African-American US President, or the day John Howard finally got booted out of office?

Quite frankly, as tragic, or sad, or momentous as those events were...none fo them deserve it.