story10876.xml

story10876.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2004-09-10

I was in my freshman geometry class and school had just begun. I was tired and didn't want to be bothered by math. As the class was going by, a teacher rushed into our classroom and told us to turn the television on. My teacher did and we heard reports of the World Trade Centers being hit by planes. I had been at ground zero a few years before and thought as a place that would always be there. The base of a the tallest buildings in NYC was something that I took for granted to be like an eternal thing. With this in mind, I could not believe what I was seeing and what I was being told. Other people around me were freaking out and getting scared, but I just remained in my seat wondering how this could have happened. America, with the best military in the world, the most freedom, the most accepting of other cultures; how could this happen to us. I still considered it to be somewhat far away in New York, but then I heard that the Pentagon was hit. That was when I realized that this was a real thing happening because that is where I live. My father worked in the pentagon just a couple of years earlier and I just wanted to know that my parents were okay. It was a scary time and I became alert immediately. People all over the school were reacting in different ways: crying, silent, wondering what would happen next. My life has changed. I am much more concerned about world issues now and what is going on with homeland security. I just hope for a safer America in the future, and pray that nothing like this will ever happen again.