I have a thing for shipwrecks. Dunno what it is. I love ghosts, cemeteries, shipwrecks, & mysteries of all kinds. I'm not into cryptids & I don't believe in the supernatural for a cold minute, & I seriously love me a good story of a shipwreck discovery & the creepy-ass footage collected from side-scan sonar & underwater photography.
Many years ago, the Titanic exhibit came to my hometown, & because we're both into creepy shit, my mom & I went to see it. I had mixed feelings about it at the time - the ship is a grave; would it be respectful? Turns out it was actually pretty awesome: very well put together, told the story of both ship & people, & was highly immersive at some points.
I remember a couple of moments distinctly: rounding a corner to a display case with a clarinet in it, fully assembled. I played clarinet in my youth, & to be confronted with the instrument recovered from the wreck made my stomach fall: who was the player? Did they make it? Were they one of the band members, maybe? Were they playing the instrument as the ship sank?
Another: encountering The Big Piece & seeing a fraction of just how massive the ship was. https://www.titanicconnections.com/the-big-piece/
We finished up, somber. At the beginning they gave us tickets with names on them, who we were supposed to "be" during the visit. We looked at the wall of passengers & crew at the end & I think we both got lucky & "survived".
Four days later, two airliners slammed into the World Trade Center towers in New York, & the world was never the same again.
Sometimes something big happens, & your world is never the same again. Not just your world, but the *entire* world. Like the Titanic sinking, which led to massive overhauls of shipping safety regulations, many in place to this day. Or the shuttle Challenger disaster, which traumatized a generation of schoolchildren. Or 9/11, which... Jeezus, where to start?
Another: listening to the soundtrack they provided to attendees as we passed through the section of the exhibit that was about the engineering section, and hearing the sound of a massive rush of water - just what the men in the boiler rooms would've heard at the time. That hit us both.