nmah2991.xml

nmah2991.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-10

I woke up for school on September 11th to my alarm radio set to my favorite station. The two hosts were talking in their usual way, and I rolled out of bed and went to the shower, leaving the radio on. Upon getting out of the shower, I first heard the news. The two radio hosts were saying how the "one of the towers has been hit by a plane."
It is almost embarrassing for me now to admit that I was oblivious to what the twin towers were. I turned off the radio without a second thought, passing it off as news about a freak accident. From their I headed to the kitchen were I saw my mom and older sister staring at the television more intently than is usual for my family. They asked me if I knew what had happened, and I looked up at the screen, only to realize that this was more immense than I ever could have imagined.
I watched as the building started to crumble. With all three house TV's tuned to different channels, we heard it over and over. Both towers had been hit and were collapsing with everyone still inside.
Yet, the sheer atrocity of the event did not sink in until that morning at school. Teachers used class time for discussion, and lunch was spent debating over why it had happened. Something this talked about had never happened before.

My life has only changed slightly since September 11.
Before, I did not watch television very often. Now, I try to watch the news whenever I get the chance. Also, my sister who lives in Manhattan, now and during the attacks, is on my mind much more frequently than she used to be. I make the effort to call her and e-mail her whenever I can. The last thing is not a change in my actions, but in the way I think. Many times I will be standing outside and a plane will fly over. The first thing that comes to my mind is, "this could be the last day of your life, are you ready?" In some ways, it makes me both sad and scared that I may not live to do everything I want to. But on the other hand, it motivates me to be ambitious now, because anything could happen.

There are many things that I believe should be remembered about September 11. First of all, I believe future school education should inform students not only of what happened, but why it happened. Terrorism is a very strong and evil force, and it should never be associated with any religion.
I also feel that everyone should remember how everyone was impacted in some way. This attack was not just in New York, it was an attack on every American's life.

In my front yard, there was an American flag for two or three months after September 11. Though my feelings have not changed towards the symbolism of the flag, when I see it I am always reminded of what happened. It reminds me that though America was attacked, we are still persevering everyday as we always did and that is something to be proud of.