9.11.01 Ten Years Later...We Remember
10 years ago I woke up and went to school on what I thought was a normal September. I was seventeen and it was the start of my senior year in high school. By the time the day ended--the world I knew had forever changed...
I walked into the ROTC department as I did every morning to wait for the start of classes. A couple of fellow cadets were gathered around a TV in one of our classrooms and told me that a plane had crashed into the world trade center. I stopped very briefly and looked at the TV but none of us thought very much about it--you see in the months leading up to the attacks several small plane accidents had occured--including one running into a building. Information at that point was not clear--we all assumed it was just another small plane.
When the bell rang I went to first period--Government. Ironic huh? At that point it was known it was a bigger plane had struck the first tower. We had no class that day--in Government class we watched the 2nd plane strike in horror. When the 1st tower fell---I stupidely remarked that "at least we still had the other tower"--at that point so in shock and so naive still. After the Pentagon, the rumor mill on TV began---the White House was in danger, the State department had been struck--different buildings were being named out---our class began to try to determine where all of the building were using the wall hangings from our class. I remember our Principal made an announcement--to this day I can't remember what it was about other than I think that it said something along the lines of how school was going to continue but that if anyone wanted to go home they could go to the office. I don't remember any of my other classes that day except that all we did was watch the television. Classes smushed together to take advantage of limited televisions. Our math class was the only one where any work was done that day--she refused to let us watch TV but did allow a radio to play throughout the class. We kept waiting for the next attack to occur.
My parent's--both of them picked me up from school that day--my dad's government building had been evacuated due to bomb threats--
I think everyone--anywhere was glued to their TV's for the next few days--watching and rewatching the towers fall, watching people choose to jump to their deaths--watching people run from the smoke cloud. Seeing the flyers of the missing--the eerie sound of no planes in the skies for days--the recovery effort at the towers.
2,983--that's how many people we witnessed murdered that day. We stood and still stand as witnesses to history--10 years later it isn't any easier--the images don't hurt anyless--
10 years later Saddam Hussien is dead. Osama Bin Laden is dead. Thousands of other both military and civilian have died.
10 years later we remember.
We hope for peace or at least some measure of it.
I walked into the ROTC department as I did every morning to wait for the start of classes. A couple of fellow cadets were gathered around a TV in one of our classrooms and told me that a plane had crashed into the world trade center. I stopped very briefly and looked at the TV but none of us thought very much about it--you see in the months leading up to the attacks several small plane accidents had occured--including one running into a building. Information at that point was not clear--we all assumed it was just another small plane.
When the bell rang I went to first period--Government. Ironic huh? At that point it was known it was a bigger plane had struck the first tower. We had no class that day--in Government class we watched the 2nd plane strike in horror. When the 1st tower fell---I stupidely remarked that "at least we still had the other tower"--at that point so in shock and so naive still. After the Pentagon, the rumor mill on TV began---the White House was in danger, the State department had been struck--different buildings were being named out---our class began to try to determine where all of the building were using the wall hangings from our class. I remember our Principal made an announcement--to this day I can't remember what it was about other than I think that it said something along the lines of how school was going to continue but that if anyone wanted to go home they could go to the office. I don't remember any of my other classes that day except that all we did was watch the television. Classes smushed together to take advantage of limited televisions. Our math class was the only one where any work was done that day--she refused to let us watch TV but did allow a radio to play throughout the class. We kept waiting for the next attack to occur.
My parent's--both of them picked me up from school that day--my dad's government building had been evacuated due to bomb threats--
I think everyone--anywhere was glued to their TV's for the next few days--watching and rewatching the towers fall, watching people choose to jump to their deaths--watching people run from the smoke cloud. Seeing the flyers of the missing--the eerie sound of no planes in the skies for days--the recovery effort at the towers.
2,983--that's how many people we witnessed murdered that day. We stood and still stand as witnesses to history--10 years later it isn't any easier--the images don't hurt anyless--
10 years later Saddam Hussien is dead. Osama Bin Laden is dead. Thousands of other both military and civilian have died.
10 years later we remember.
We hope for peace or at least some measure of it.