nmah5709.xml

nmah5709.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-09-10

On the morning of September 11th, my friend Jason and I, sophomores aged 15, were conducting our first Chemistry Lab up in the Boston College High School Science Department which seemed, at the time, the most significant thing I would do all day. Around nine A.M. my chemistry teacher, Mr. Conners, announced,"Do any of you guys remember the Oklahoma City bombing a few years back? Maybe you folks are too young, but anyways, the World Trade Towers in New York were hit by a plane, and it's almost like Oklahoma City. They don't think it's an accident. I'm going to the office to watch this on T.V., so you're free to leave."
At first I envisioned an airplane stuck in the World Trade Center, just another freak event akin to the protester whose parachute had gotten stuck on the Statue of Liberty. Only until I reached the school library did I realize what had happened.
The atmosphere inside the library was eerily quiet, as the silence immediatly told me something was terribly wrong. About fifteen students and two faculty members were huddled around a solitary computer, with faces that could not seem to comprehend the disaster at hand. The moment I saw the computer screen showing a picture of one of the World Trade towers with a gaping hole about twenty stories wide, everything that I was thinking about and worrying about blanked out and was replaced by a feeling of insecurity that told me that our nation was under attack.
The web-site (Boston.com, as cnn.com and other prominent worldwide news services seemed to all fail at the same moment) had streaming headlines on the attack on the United States. First it announced two planes had hit the WTC. Then, the Pentagon was attacked about ten minutes later. We were informed almost instantly after that a plane had crashed near Pittsburgh and now there were approximatly twenty hi-jacked planes in the air. What was next? Strangely enough, even though I was in the city of Boston less than a mile away from a thirty story natural gas tank, I never thought about my city being hit next.
All our classes were devoted to 9/11 that day (except Algebra II for some reason) and gave me some thoughts that I had never really had to give thought to. We were at war, and our nation was attacked on its homeland for the first time since 1941. Where would we fight? Will this happen again, near me? Will there be a draft? What are we going to have to sacrifice? There were a lot of questions that day.

My perspective changed on my view of the world. Up until 9/11/01, as a 15 year old, my life revolved around sports. The Red Sox, Patriots, and Celtics were the most important things in the world. For the first time, I was able to block sports out, and really think about the world I live on. For example, from that day on, I made it a priority to read the Boston Herald's national and international news before anything else. I also matured a lot from everything surrounding around 9/11. Hearing those stories about everyday people at work becoming the targets of war made me think that it could be me next. Of course there is increased security and things like that, but for me the internal changes were most significant.

I think we should remember the souls of the men and women who died and the firemen and policemen who gave up everything to save lives. September 11th should also be remebered as an example of what can happen if we lay down our guard. Another lesson learned is how we can come together as a country in times of crisis.

On the Friday after 9/11, we lit candles and waved a flag to the traffic driving by our home. My father, one who prides in his American citizenship greatly, always flew the flag, even before 9/11. The flag is something I can be proud of.