nmah4881.xml

nmah4881.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-13

On September 11th I was in Italian class at 9:30 and someone walked in and said "a commercial plane crashed into some buildings." Honestly I didn't even know what she was talking about, so my first thought was,'Oh no, not another one of those small planes crashed.' Then things started to get a little bit clearer, my teacher started to become concered on what the girl was saying, and then the principal came over the loud speaker and announced that a terrorist act has occured and two planes crashed into the twin towers. After the announcment I was just plain confused. I had no idea about terrorism, I just thought it was some sick people doing this. My next thoughts were where my family was, I have family working right next to the twin towers that are in their for meetings often. Unfortunetly I didn't get to actually see what was going on until about 12 my english teacher brought us in a room to watch tv, then it hit me. Wow! How could anyone do this? Whats going to happen to all those poeple? Are these sick people going to come to Boston? Are they going to come just drop random bombs? The terrorist did their job through me, they put fear, horror and sadness in me. It never really hit me until I got home, I called my mother and I could not stop crying, my dad had to close are family business so he could come home to me so I wouldn't be alone, I was freaking. I couldn't even go to school the next day, I was terrified, all I wanted to do was be with my mother. Then I had later learned that my cousin was in one of the buildings, he ran out and made it home on the last train safely before the second plane hit, while my other cousin was left behind, gratefully not in the twin towers but a couple streets down, he had to walk down the streets and see his friends dying, and dead bodies falling. I just couldn't imagine how anyone could do this.

Yes, September 11th has greatly changed my life in some positive ways and some negative way. Now I'm always in fear, of what can happen next, of all our men in afganistan, the where abouts of Osama Bin Laden and are my walking down the street right next to one of these terrorists. After September 11th, I never wanted to leave my mothers side, it was awful, I wanted to know where all my family was at all times, my fear became an obsession. In positive ways I realize what hero's we have in our country, and how far police departments and fire departments go for their job. It makes me feel proud that I live in a country where people are willing to risk their lives for others, it gives me a sense of proudness and safety. The singing of the national anthem was no longer a procedure before a football or baseball game, the pledge of allegiance was not a pain in the neck thing I had to memorize. Everytime I do one of these rituals my mind always drifts to September 11th, everytime. I will never forget what CAN happen, and I don't think everyone else will forget what we can loose in an instance.

The most important thing I think we should all remember about September 11th is all the hero's without them the number of people that died could have been tripled. A second thing that should be remember always is not always to take advantage of what we have surrounding us.

After September 11th I don't think anyone DIDN'T fly a flag. I remember traveling everywhere with my mom to find a flag, but every store we would go to would say sold out. The extreme amount of patriotism that this country showed was unbelievable. I think it was awesome. I'll never forget the candle vidual we did throughout the whole country, I remember walking down the street and almost every house someone was sitting outside with a candle in their hand. Yes, my feelings about the American flag have changed, when I see it, I get this feeling of proudness that this is my country and no matter who thinks they can bring us down, it will never happen.