story6687.xml

story6687.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-12

It is hard to remember the way things were before September 11th 2001. That day has completely changed the way we live, the way we act, and the way we think. The strange thing is, I can remember exactly what I was doing that entire day. September 11th started out like any other school day. I went to English first block; we were starting the background information for The Crucible. It seemed like the period was never going to end because that is the way English class normally is for me. Once the bell rang at 9:08 I went to my locker and then went to visit with some of my friends during break while trying to cram as much studying as I could for my next class.
As the bell rang for second block to begin I strolled into business law and said ?hi? to my teacher as I did everyday. Still everything seemed normal, except for the fact that I was dreading our first exam of the school year. A little after class started a student walked in tardy and told us to turn the TV. on because a plane had crashed into the world trade center. As my teacher turned on the television to CNN I was astonished by what was on the screen. I could not believe my eyes, and at first I did not understand what was happening. The teacher ended up postponing our test and we watched CNN in amazement.
Right when I thought things were ok and we were going to begin doing some work we witnessed the plane crash into the pentagon. At that moment it really hit home what was happening. A lot of my friends had parents who worked at the pentagon and one of my softball coaches who I had become very close to lived a few minutes from the pentagon. All of the sudden two of the girls in my class burst into tears and asked to leave so she could call to see if her father was alright. I just wanted to do something or comfort her but there was nothing I really could do. Near the end of that period our principal came on the loudspeaker and told everyone what had happened. He also decided to change one of our rules about the use of cell phones and said it was all right if we called our parents to check on them.
After that period ended I had lunch. I remember walking to the cafeteria seeing so many other students in tears. I felt lucky in a way that I knew nothing had happened to my family. At the same time I felt very sad for those of them who still did not know if things were all right. The whole lunch period all we talked about at my table was what had been on the news. We also predicted that something was going to happen the middle- eastern students in the school because there were a bunch of angry Americans walking around the halls.
When I got home I was relieved to see both of my parents at home and my mom had told me that she called my brother at college and everything was ok up there too. I remember watching the news the rest of the night and on to the next day. We had the next day off from school and it was weird looking out the window and seeing the smoke that had been blown over from the fire at the pentagon. Since that day things have changed tremendously for me. Over the summer when I went to my softball tournaments there was a lot more airport security. My mom was actually frisked both times we went to the airport this past summer. The country has also shown a lot more pride in America and we have all come together over the past year. It is good to see that now, after the one-year anniversary we still are Proud to be an American!