nmah110.xml

nmah110.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-03

I was student teaching a 4th grade class. When I first found out, I didn't even understand what they were saying. I was in the middle of teaching a math lesson, and because I had been in class all morning, I didn't know what was going on, I didn't find out until 10:30 that morning. My master teacher was supposed to be out of the room, but she had really been watching the reports. I didn't find out anything really until I got into my car on the way home and then I just cried and cried. A lot of the parents had freaked out and come for their children, so some of the students had an idea, and it was heartbreaking to hear what they were saying. "Someone ran a plane into a building, and I think it was on purpose." "Mommy said the man that did it is evil." It was heartbreaking for 9 year olds to be worried about evil.

I think about the things that I'm doing just in everyday life, and how the victims can never do those things again, and how their loved ones can never do those things with them again. I really cherish my time now, I know that it is special, even if I am sitting on the couch watching a movie, it is special. I tell people that I love them more. I tell people that I love them right when I'm thinking it, incase I don't get the chance again.

I think that the innocent people that were lost should be remembered. I think that the heroes that died just doing their jobs should be remembered. Sure, we will fight back, we will rebuild, but there were millions of untold stories and unlived moments that ended that day, and we need to keep them close to our hearts.

I think that it is sad that it took something like this to get many people to fly a flag. I am one of those girls that would get teared up over the Star Spangled Banner at baseball games years ago. I have always had a flag. The thing that got me the most on September 11 was that in my neighborhood, on my way home, a boyscout down the street was just holding this enormous flag, standing on the corner. He wasn't crying, he wasn't doing anything, just holding this flag on the corner, I guess that that is all that he knew to do. I think that the flag has come to mean a lot more than a united union of 50 states, it stands for our loss, and the people who died on September 11.