nmah4323.xml

nmah4323.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I was in gym class on that morning. It was the day we had to run the timed mile. My friend Amy and I were running together. We decided to sprint the last corner of the track and both recieved times around 9 minutes. After we finished the mile, a few of us decided to go back into the school to get a drink of water. I was walking around our school's foyer and my friend Amanda came down the stairs. "Hey did you guys hear what happened??" she asked us "A plane just flew into the World Trade Center!" We were shocked but it didn't really hit us. Then my principal ran down the stairs talking into his walkie talkie yelling, "they just got the Pentagon!"
My friends and I still didn't believe it. We didn't think it was serious until the next period, when a kid in our math class got called down to the office because his father worked in the WTC. We spent that whole block period looking up info on the internet and watching the tvs in the hallways. I was finally starting to understand what was happening.
It was during my last period class that I heard the most shocking news of all. My old gym teacher's husband was on one of the planes, and he had left her a message on her answering machine before crashing. She had also been the cross country coach the year before, and one of the other coaches pulled every team member out of class to tell them in private. By the end of the day everyone on the team was bawling.
After school I went to field hockey practice. Everyone was upset, but playing really provided a good outlet so that we could take our minds off things. We did, however, think of a new play, and we named it "911".
That night I watched the news and after seeing the image over and over again, I was crying. It was all just too much to handle.

Because of September 11, I feel that I have more pride and respect towards our country. Everytime I start to take something for granted, I think of all the people that never got to say goodbye to their kids, and the people that suffered so much on that day.

After 9/11, I was just so in awe of our country. I felt like I could say "hi" to anyone. Everyone put aside their differences and became united as a nation. I love wearing red white and blue and seeing people everywhere doing the same. I loved lighting candles and driving by and honking for those that were doing so on the streets. Even though this was a major tragedy, I felt that it truly brought the country together and everyone was just more respectful of others.