story20724.xml

story20724.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2006-09-11

September 11th, the day the world stood still. Where was I? At school. I distinctly remember on that day, I was in Ms.Barbara's english class. She had left the room momentarily. But when she came back, she told us "The Twin Towers are no more." Some of us asked what she meant, but honestly we didn't know what was so important about that because we didn't know what the Twin Towers were. None of us really knew what that meant until we watched the news. For some reason, I clearly remember the weather that day. It was a warm sunny day. The sky was clear and so blue that you could get lost in it. Ironic that a beautiful day as September 11th would be the day such a tragedy occurs. Maybe thats why its so hard to forget. Without clouds, all we could watch was the planes hit the Twin Towers and feel the dawning realization that this is what a terrorist attack feels like. It wasn't like anything in the movies. It was real and disturbing. Then the towers collasped, bringing a wave of debris and toxic dust. But what really hurts the most is that we lost so many people. Its the realization that somehow you escaped with your life when your friend, relative, or co-worker didn't. Its living with the guilt that you survived. For the heros and all who died, so saddening to the point where we can't forget. 5 years later and we still mourn your missing presence. How do you forget about this? This grief that haunts that ever present hole in your heart. For the people who have lost a son, a daughter, a father, a mother, a cousin, anybody in your family; how they have to continue on everyday life with that burden of grief. But among the chaos and tragedy, we came together. We united in face of this tragedy and said "You know what, you may have attacked us and lowered our spirit, but we will recover and when we do, watch out."
Maybe out of the whole day, what I remember the most the un-nerving silence at night. In my neighborhood, I usually hear cars, airplanes, and sometimes, the amublance or firetruck. On that day, I heard nothing. Nothing except the somber silence and the silent weeping of N.Y