story2149.xml

story2149.xml

born-digital

story

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2002-09-10

Remembering 9/11
School at Boston College High School started at 8:30 am, as usual on 9/11/01, and my train ride to school was like any other. My second period class, AP Government, starting at 9:30am was held in one of my school's computer labs. The purpose of the class was to research information for my class' government textbook, but suddenly my teacher announced that a plane had "accidentally" flown into one of the World Trade Centers in New York. Quickly, everyone in the class went from the government website to cnn.com and other news web pages. As the class continued, pictures of the first plane flying into one of the towers began to appear on the screen of my computer. Then my teacher started explaining that he thought that it was a deliberate act, because planes just don't "accidentally" fly into the largest building in New York. I was shocked that something like this could happen. It was now thirty minutes into the class and all of the major web pages of news organizations were running ridiculously slow, due to the numbers of people at work logging on, attempting to find out what had happened. My class was most likely the first to find out about what had happened in my entire school, because we had been doing research on the internet and everyone else was in classrooms. As class was ending the word terrorist was mentioned and everyone was in disbelief. Personally, I thought it still could possibly be a tragic accident. The bell rang and it was now 10:10am. Perhaps, that forty-minute class I had will be the most important and memorable class that I will ever have . I went to lunch, which started at 10:15, and a sickening buzz swept through the cafeteria that a second plane had smashed right into the World Trade Center. Normally, while eating, there is your regular joking around with friends and eating whatever junk you can buy, but that day there was a silence over everyone in the caf. I remember just not believing what was happening. I was stunned and a little scared, because in the back of my mind, I was thinking of traveling through Boston, a large city like New York, with tall buildings, on a train. As the day unfolded at school the seeds of 9/11 were already becoming planted, engraved into everyone's mind. I went home when school ended at 2:40 with two friends I normally ride the train with. The train was filled with incredulous people and I remember just wanting to get home and be with my family. On that train ride, I felt lonelier than ever in my life. At home I watched TV, still stunned and shocked, until I fell asleep.
That day changed my life in one enormous way. I realized the true value of life and how precious it really is. I never thought that I would witness bodies just falling from buildings like rag dolls. Images like that are indented into my mind. They are disturbing and a strong reminder to me that I should never take a day of my life for granted and I should feel lucky for everything I have and more importantly, value the things I haven't lost.