story5536.xml

story5536.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I remember the events of 9-11-01, very vividly. I walked into my 2nd period class, not knowing anything had happened. As soon as I took my seat, my teacher turned on the TV. The whole class fell silent as we started to watch the 2nd plane crash into the 2nd tower. No one really knew if what we were seeing was really happening or if it was a movie or something like that. No one could believe that something that horrible was actually happening, here in the U.S. I remember watching with tears welling up in my eyes. I couldn't imagain someone hating someone else so much that they could kill thousands of inocent people. My teacher stood up and told us what was happening, as fair as he could tell. Than he sat down and didn't talk again. I was scared. I didn't understand what had happened or what was going to happen after it was all over. I sat and wrote notes to my friend Michael, because he was 17 and knew more about what was going on. He was almost in tears. He thought that we would probably end up going into WWIII. That scared me so much. My cousin was in boot camp, for the Marine's, while all of this was happening. Later, I found out that he hadn't even heard that anything had happened until a couple of weeks later.
Through out the rest of the day, I was pretty much in a daze. I cried off and on with friends. I went to my third block class, which was French I. My teacher was from France and had seen terrorist attacks before, so it didn't really effect him as much as it did us. In that class we discussed what had happened and what we thought would come of it. But then we also just did work as if it were a regular day. During that class period my mom came to school and wanted to pick me up early. She wanted to get her whole family together and know for a fact that they were safe. I really didn't want to go home though. I wanted to stay with my friends at school where I felt sheltered in a way. I guess she understood and she decided that I could stay. I went to my last block and just talked with friends about what happened. It was hard and tearful. After school was over I went and hung out with some of my friends at the side of the school. But when I got over there I had to leave. Some of the kids were actually happy about what had happened. They thought that the end of the world was coming and they were happy about it. I just couldn't even comprehend that. So I left. I walked home as quickly as possible. My little brother Jesse was there with my mom and other brother Matt. They were all glued to the TV. My mom decided to turn it off when Jesse started getting really upset. That night my mom, grand mother, and I went to my friend Laura's church for a special service. My mom was so upset because she grew up in New York. We prayed and cried together. It was very hard to deal with. When we got home all I wanted to do is go to bed. Jesse was scared and wanted to sleep with someone, so I let him get in bed with me. That night, I think I prayed more than I ever had in my whole life. I prayed for all the families who had lost anyone.
Today it's exactly one year later. A lot has happened since last year. Watching the whole thing over and over, on TV, again is hard. But, it just makes me stop and think about everything that I do have today. It makes me feel very thankful. I lit a white candle and let it burn, as a symbol of rememberance of everyone who had died. It was a small thing, but it meant something to me.