nmah4188.xml

nmah4188.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I lived in a town about 45 minutes away from NYC by trsin. It was one of the small towns in the area made up of many people who had come there to raise their children outside the city. I don't know exact nubers but i would say well over half the town commuted, and in my high school the percentage of partents who commuted was between eighty to ninty percent. I was a senior in gym class when the second tower collapsed. We were outside on the track and heard the story as a maintenance van with the radio on drove by. The school was trying to wait as long as possible to tell everyone what was happening, they wanted to have more reassuring information to give the students. But after we heard, they made the announcment to the whole school. Everyone was shocked. My friends were all calling their parents trying to get a hold of them. It was like being in another world. What made it worse was the fact that my high school started with eight grade. The younger kids didn't understand what had happened. They were making jokes about it and laughing. It wasn't until some saw older siblings hysterical in the hall ways as they tried to get through to family on a cell phone that any of them realized how serios it was. It was very hard to sit and try to stay calm because we were seniors and expected to set an example for the younger students, when we were so frightened and confused ourselves. Technically there was still classes that day, but many students didn't go, they simply couldn't function. It was hard to, watching and knowing that it was our friends/families in the city, but being unable to help. If we had lived in the city, we could have gone to stand on line to give blood, instead all we could do was sit by and watch in those forst hours. Even if it had only been a token act of help that was turned away due to the huge out pouring of aid, we all desperatly wanted that chance. In the days that followed we showed our support by raising money, collecting supplies and flying the flag. We were very fortunate, there were few losses from the families in our town. But the ones that were there were tragic. I remember a sidewalk sale a few weeks later. It was an outdoor festival with vendors and a dj. While I was there a saw a mother walking with three or four children. None of them were over the age of eight. The youngest was an infant. On their backs, their mother had pinned a sign. As close as I can remember it said "Please pray for our daddy. He is amoung the missing at the world trade center. God Bless America". Another family I knew lost their father in the world trade center, he was a firefighter there. I saw sights like this for the next several months. Today is September 11 2002 but it doesn't feel like a year has passed. I suppose it is because I saw so much relating to the WTC in the past 11 months, that I never had time to forget even a little. I left for college a week ago, and up to that point I still saw flags outside houses, in car windows, and signs saying God Bless the USA. It was a day that turned into a whole year, one that I will never forget.

My life has changed in many ways. I feel compelled to watch the news more often, just to make sure nothing horrible has happened. At the same time I often don't watch because there is so much bad news. When NY lowered the flags to half mast for a governer who passed away I noticed as I was walking to work. The first thing I did when I got there was find out why. The association with the flag and September 11 was so present that I couldn't think of any other reason for the flag to be lowered.

I think that everything should be remembered about September 11. It was a tragic day, and every story of every victim and every hero deserves to be remembered. And I feel that almost EVERY American falls into one of these two catagories. We all promised "never to forget" and I think that we should stay true to this.

My family flew a flag after September 11. Before that day the flag was just a symbol of the fourth of July, "of freedom and equality" as I had been told in school. I didn't understand what that really ment until September 11. Now I see a flag and think of all the good things about our country that it represents, and all the people who have died to protect that flag.