story11223.xml

story11223.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2004-12-13

Before September 11, 2001 the month of September meant a couple of common things to people. This included the end of summer time, Labor Day, and back to school the kids. This was back then, now September has taken on a whole new meaning. The image of terror and panic in New York, along with the Twin Towers crumbling before the world will be forever burned in my memory. This one event in time was so powerful that years from now people will ask my generation "Where were you when the Twin Towers fell?". This generation will be defined by that one moment in time.

The alarm goes off and I immediately hit the snooze button. It was the first couple days of school and I was definitely still in my summer sleeping habits. I gave anything for those extra couple minutes of sleep. Of course eventually I got up out of bed thinking that it was just another day that ultimately just led to the next and made it one day closer to being summertime again. This all changed in just a couple of hours. I was in my gym class in Mclean High School, we weren't doing anything just hanging around. I was sitting down talking to some people I had just met, suddenly out of nowhere a kid comes running in screaming "The Twin Towers have just been hit!!". I'll admit that I didn't pay any attention to that kid only because only because it sounded to unbelievable to believe. My opinion of this changed immediately though when a teacher comes running in the gym wheeling with her a television. She put on one of the hundreds of channels that were broadcasting the events. Out of nowhere everyone rushes around the television trying to comprehend what was really going on, and those in the far back were jumping up and down trying to catch a peek of the television images. I managed to make my way to the front to see the tv nice and well. I couldn't believe what was happening. Smoke was pouring out of one of the Twin Towers, and at the bottom of the screen it kept flashing messages that it had been hit by a hijacked airplane. Minutes later a second plane slowly approached the second tower and exploded into flames, everyone who could see the tv screen at that point was mortified including myself. No one knew why this things were happening and now weren't sure if they were over. Of course we all know now that it wasn't over, the horrifying scenes of people jumping out of the Twin Towers began to happen and then of course there was the hit on the Pentagon that was so close to home. Everyone was panicking at that point and the whole school was now questioning the safety of the nation. I couldn't understand why anyone would do this America, and how they had the conscience to kill thousands of people. I think these questins plagued every American over the next couple of weeks. Of course the road to recovery was a long one.

Every generation has some key moments that future generations who weren't alive through them all want to know about it. There have been some important moments in the past such as the Vietnam War, the assasination of Kennedy, and the moon landing. The events of September 11, 2001 will "forever live in infamy", and will be looked back on as a time when the nation as a whole was united and supportive of one another.