9/11/01-9/11/11

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I was 12 years old on September 11, 2001.  I was in eighth grade.  I remember sitting in science class watching the news footage; not really understanding the magnitude of what was happening.

That morning — I used to sleep with my radio on for background noise — I heard about it on the radio as I was waking up.  In that halfway point between being awake and asleep, I thought I was dreaming it.  I also thought I had dreamt John Ritter’s death.  Once I realized that I wasn’t dreaming and that it was real, I still didn’t understand.

By the time I got to school, it had been determined that the planes were deliberately flown into the Twin Towers.  Into the Pentagon.  Some of the kids at school were trying to make it seem like our area was a target because of the missile storage or something, nearby.

We stayed the full day at school and when I got home, every station was covering the story.  I will never forget seeing footage of people jumping out of the towers to escape the fire.  I will never forget the footage of the planes flying into the towers and the towers collapsing being played over and over again.  I will never forget seeing the faces of the people in New York as they ran from Ground Zero and watched their home city in chaos.  I will never forget the estimated death toll rising throughout the day.  I will never forget.

Seeing the footage today, ten years later at age 22, is different.  In a way, I understand the magnitude of what happened.  I understand the loss and the fear that is now synonymous with that day.  I don’t think I’ll ever really understand, though, why.  I guess what it comes down to is that I can’t understand that level of hatred.  Hopefully I never will.

For the rest of my life, I will remember what happened on September 11, 2001 and how it affected me, even all the way across the country in California.  I’ll always remember what I was doing and where I was.  I will never forget.  I will never forget all of the people who were trapped and died in the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon.  I will never forget the people who were trapped in the hijacked planes that flew into the buildings and the field in Pennsylvania.  I will never forget the rescue workers that died trying to save those trapped people.  I will never forget how scared everyone was, how angry everyone was, how proud everyone was to be an American.

In Loving Memory.