nmah5650.xml

nmah5650.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-09-06

I was a senior in high school, sitting in my first class of the day, Zoology. One of the other students in the class had headphones on and was listening to the radion as the teacher was lecturing. When the teacher noticed the lack of attention the student was paying to the lecture, she asked him why he was listening to the radio. He said that the tallest building in New York was on fire. We all thought nothing of it, really. The teacher laughed and said that if he was lying that he would be in trouble. She walked over to the television and turned it onto a news station.
We could see the devestation of the Tower Two, and as we watched, the next plane crashed into Tower One. Then began the allegation that it could be a terrorist attack.
My dad was a Government teacher at my high school, so I wrote him a note that said "Dad- I don't know if this would be important to you... but the WTC in New York was hit by two planes and they think that it is terrorists."
I took it to him and he turned it on for his class.
After that it really hit me... the United States, my country, my home, had been attacked.
The rest of the day was a very interesting on. The school was silent... and for a school the size of mine, that never happens. No one did any work in our classes. We just stared transfixed on the events and the tragedy that was on the television. That afternoon, when I got out of school, I went to the store and bought newspapers. The store, as I would guess everywhere in America, was silent. I guess there really are no words to describe what it felt like to witness that... to hear that. I think wveryone was just filled with the knowledge that the nation would never be the same again.

I can't say that my life specifically has changed too drastically. I guess for everyone, life just has to go on. The major change for me was when my best friend joined the Army. He was at the University of GA, on the football team, popular, with good grades, but he felt that he was more needed serving the country. As he would say, he "just wanted to help out." I, like thousands of other people, have had to learn how to deal with life when someone you love is in the military. So, though I didn't lose anyone directly by the attacks on September 11th, I have lost years of time with my best friend.

The myriad things that should be remembered about September 11th are impossible to put into words. In order to understand what needs to be remembered, all one has to do it look through the pictures of that day, and the weeks that followed, or to read the names of all who died due to the attacks. No words could equal the power of that understanding

No, I didn't fly a flag after the attacks. I was actually disappointed by the display of patriotism after Sept. 11th. To me, it seems like people should be proud of and support the nation 365 days a year, not just on holidays, and definitely just after a national crisis. The American flag that I fly is in my heart... and it is always waving.