nmah4171.xml

nmah4171.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I had just taken a seat at my desk, when someone came in and said that the pentagon had been hit by a plane. Was it true? No, none of us believed it. About ten minutes later an announcement came on telling us that an airplane had crashed into the pentagon and the two World Trade Centers. It didn't really hit me until I got home from school and saw it with my own eyes. It was truely the "scariest" thing I had ever seen. How can anyone want to try to "destroy" a nation because we live in peace? How can anyone be so insensible, malevolent, and selfish that they feel the need to kill babies, mommies, daddies, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, fiancees, friends, and soul mates who did nothing wrong except be an American?

My life has greatly changed after what happened on September 11th. I've learned to live each day like it's my last, and to cherish my family and friends. I visited New York on the 9 month anniversary and found myself still in disbelief that anything as terrible as this could happen to our nation. I was also touched by every fireman and policeman that I met while I was there, because each and everyone of those people helped to change someone's life in some way. They are a few of the people who are considered heros, not just because of what they did that day and the following months, but because they are the ones who helped us stand up by not running away to re-unite, and show the world that we aren't going to be destroyed. Without their courageous efforts, we wouldn't be where we are today. I have come to realize that we really are one nation, undivisible.

September 11th should be remembered as the day that all Americans became one. We were no longer separated by race, color, sex, age, nationality, or religion. We came together, and we've shown the world that nothing can change that. Nothing will ever tear us apart.

On September 11th, there was an American flag in my front yard, but even though I was 16, I didn't think much about it. I used to look at it as something that people died for and that it represented our nation. That day changed that. I now look at the American flag as something much more than that. It is a symbol of all of us, me included, of how we all are united. I never took pride in seeing red, white, and blue everywhere until the tragic events took place on September 11th. I actually smile every time that I see an American flag, whether it's outside of a school, in someone's car, or on a 5-year-old's folder.