Last night we arrived at Oklahoma City at about 6 in the evening. After we unpacked the vans we were free to walk around the city. Our professors told us to walk to the Oklahoma City National Memorial and explore it at night. A large group of us students went over after dinner. To say the least we were breathless. From the moment we walked in we were in aw over the power of lit up chairs where the Murrah building used to be. Seeing all the empty chairs made me realize the magnitude of how many people died in the bombing. Though the chairs were empty I felt connect to the dead. Almost like they still lingered or even were sitting in their chair in spirit form. The chairs gave the memorial a feeling of sorrow but yet it didn’t feel like a sad place. This, I feel, is due to the survivor tree. This area of the memorial remembers the people who survived and help rescue people from the blast. Giving the memorial a powerful sense of hope that counter acts the sadness reflected in the chairs.
This morning we as a class revisited the memorial. Seeing it in the daylight I got a different feeling from the memorial. I saw it as an open inviting space that showed me the events that occurred during the blast. When standing beside the pool I can see the reflection of the walls in the pool, which gives the feeling of the building that used to be there. Seeing the reflection of the chairs and walls in the pool gave me the sense that I was watching the bombing go off as an outside viewer. Though the bombing happened years ago I could still feel and hear the bombing from the sense of feeling I got from the reelections in the pool. The Oklahoma City National Memorial is by far one of the most well designed and powerful places that I have ever been to In my life.
Yujiong and Rob
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