10 Years Later

Like many other Americans , I cant believe it has already been 10 years since September 11, 2001 happened. I was sitting in Mr. Schwalbach’s sixth grade math class in Orlando, FL when the planes hit the two towers. The school’s approach to 9/11 was to let our parents tell us. I remember how jealous I was at P.E. because all of my friend’s parents were picking them up early and I didn’t know why.  Later in the day my dad picked me up from school. I hopped in the car and began to explain my frustration of all of my friends leaving school early. That is when he told me that two planes hit the World Trade Center. My first question was,” What is that?” and then, “Who would do that? And why?” When I got home I was stuck to the television watching for hours.

Until this summer I understood 9/11 as a tragic attack on our country and the reason for the war in the Middle East and longer check-ins at the airport. While I was interning in Connecticut this summer I would occasionally exchange stories of where we were when 9/11 happened. I couldn’t believe everyone from the northeast knew someone affected by the attacks or lost someone they knew. I was always so distanced from the emotions of this tragedy.

10 years later, I no longer see 9/11 as a 12 year old. Before I would just see the towers collapsing but now, I realize that there were people in there. On lookers had to watch that footage of their loved ones die over and over again. People my age, just out of college and at their first jobs were in killed. It sounds like such a stupid realization but after visiting New York this summer and talking with others about their experiences I now understand the magnitude of this tragedy a little better. I will “Never Forget.”