That’s the question being asked most often today, isn’t it?
10 years ago today, I was in 9th grade. As I walked into my 3rd period American History class, my teacher announced that “history is being made right this very moment.” But he wouldn’t elaborate any further, so we went about our usual lesson and didn’t think much of it.
Right before the period ended, one of the hall monitors came into the room and whispered something into the teacher’s ear. She must have been giving him the go ahead to make the announcement, because it was then that he told us: “The twin towers have been hit.”
I don’t remember if the towers had fallen yet at that point, but I do remember walking through the halls in between classes and hearing about other students who were being pulled out of school because they had a relative who worked in the towers. My high school was only about 70 miles from New York City, so it was common for people to commute to the city for work on a daily basis. I even had one classmate whose brother had been on one of the planes.
I spent the rest of the school day in a daze. In some classes, teachers attempted to get through their planned material; in others, we just sat and watched the news for the full 40 minute period.
One of my most distinct memories from that day was walking home from the bus stop and seeing my mother running down the road to meet me, tears in her eyes. We were fortunate in that we didn’t lose anyone we knew personally, but we still mourned along with the rest of the nation as we watched the horrific events unfold again and again on TV.
10 years later, we as a country are still mourning. Though time may pass and people will move on with their lives, America will never forget the heroes and victims of 9/11.
Photo by melifaire.
