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On September 11, 2001 I was nine years old sitting on the bean bag chair in my elementary school library. My classmates and I were waiting for our library teacher to begin her lesson when our art teacher burst into the room, with an energy that we had never seen. In one breath he said "The World Trade Center was hit, you can see it from the window!" The library on the fifth floor of our Bath Beach school had the perfect view of Lower Manhattan, especially on clear day, but what I saw with my own eyes was all too clear. In one second, as the billowing smoke was exhuming from the tower, I saw what looked like a little bird fly around the burning tower and come around and smash right into the second tower. With the burst of flames I lost my breath for a second and I was overcome with fear as I looked at my fellow classmates, many from the Fort Hamilton army base, their parents active in the army. The look on their faces said it all and without a word we all knew that everyone's life had just changed. Since that dreadful September, the next half of my life has been living in a country in war, fighting terrorism, constantly emerged in violence.

On the 10th anniversary, I will watch the ceremony and reflect upon the past ten years. I am sure I will again see the image I saw that day, and continue to pray for all the victims, both those that passed, those whose family passed, and fellow New Yorkers who too saw with their own eyes the havoc wreaked that day.