Remembering 9/11: Ten Years Later

10 years ago I had no idea what the World Trade Centers were.  This is my attempt to journal my experiences from September 11, 2001 – something I never did ten years ago.  I am doing this because I don’t want to forget.  Not that I would ever be able to forget an event like that.  This post is fairly emotionless, mostly due to the fact that I (a) didn’t really know what was going on while it was happening and (b) I didn’t yet understand the magnitude of the events on that day.

The planes hit the towers at 7:46 and 8:03 CST.  I would have just started class during my seventh grade year; the first class of the day was World History with Coach Topik.  I can remember sitting in the library with the rest of my classmates doing research for whatever happened to be the project of the week.  The librarian and Coach Topik were in the large storage room that held the TVs teachers could use.  As we wondered what they were doing over there, one classmate informed us that the president (George W. Bush) was making a speech.  My thought?  Big deal.  He’s just the president talking about something boring. 

I didn’t thinking anything else about it until I made it to my 3^rd period class – creative writing with Mrs. Tigrett.  Word had begun to spread about the attacks, and a friend of mine said that planes had crashed into the World Trade Centers in New York.  “That’s sad,” was my thought.  Once again, it got pushed almost to the back of my mind as I turned my focus to school (big surprise there). 

However, by the time I made it to 5^th period, the student body was buzzing about what was going on in New York.  I found out that there was another plane that air control couldn’t locate on radar and that it was supposedly connected to the events of the morning.  At this point, I was hungry for information about what was happening – obviously it was something big and important.  Word was that teachers had been informed that they should not tell us what was going on, though some apparently did pass on information.  Classes continued for the rest of the day with no new information seeping through the cracks.

I was going to stay after school to audition for a play.  When I got to auditions, I chickened out and chose to sit in the bleachers and work on homework instead.  After school, Mom picked me up.  I don’t remember what happened at this point – it’s possible that we talked about school or the events in New York, but I’m just not sure.  I do know that when I got home, I glued myself to the TV until dinner and the radio after that.  My classroom gossip was confirmed – the World Trade Centers had been hit by terrorists, the Pentagon had been hit, and a plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.

As the years have gone by, my love of this country has grown.  I am so proud of all the men and women who have, do, and will fight to protect this country.  And I am proud to be an American.