The Day I Won't Forget

This picture always sends a powerful chill and shake down my spine. When I look at it I can't help but feel mixtures of sadness, anger, and disbelief. The way the skyline suddenly disappeared in New York City best exemplifies the way we as Americans suddenly had a large piece of collective conscious suddenly disappear as well. This post is for all of us.

This is not my first attempt at attempting to write a blog entry about September 11, but I’m hoping this will be my last attempt. I first started writing about how America has changed since the attacks and the consequences of it (mainly focusing on how it has lowered America in the eyes of the world) of it. Finally, after writing about 3 pages about that I didn’t like it. I don’t think I or anyone else should use this day to discuss politics or the ramifications the attacks had on the USA. I’d be more than eager to discuss it any other day, but not today. So, I finally made the decision, and had the insight to realize that this post should really be a memorial and thoughts about the people who were killed during the attacks, and a little bit about where I was and what I did that day.

I was a Sophomore in high school. I grew up in central New Jersey in a very ritzy area where thousands of families commuted into New York for business. That’s why when I was sitting in Algebra II, and the announcement came on the loud speaker from the principal that the World Trade Center had been hit by a plane that my thoughts were “Which one of my friends has a family member at the Trade Center?” My mind flew to the girl down the street and her father, but I soon got the message he was on the other side of Manhattan. The other tower I don’t think had been hit yet, and many of us assumed it was a small plane that just ran of course or something. When the auditorium was full of students watching TV on the projector saw the actual extent, and then witnessed the second airplane hit we started freaking out a LOT more. Cell phones were just beginning to pick up steam, but all the lines and connections were down because of too much traffic. Teachers tried to maintain more order by telling students to go to class, but also understood most students wouldn’t listen to them, and also they wanted to see as well. I skipped gym class when I watched the South tower get hit, and then I remember watching South tower fall and then our teachers and principals got us out of the auditorium. I sat in Chemistry class while the teacher tried to teach a lesson, and the rest of us sat angry and stunned. Then the Pentagon was hit, and minutes later I can recall with near precision seeing lower Manhattan disappear behind huge plumes of smoke and debris of what was a 110-story building. We all know the rest of the story of that day…

The rest of the day is a blur. I came home and my mom asks me where my neighbor friend was. The school called her and said he’d be coming home with me. We do get a hold of him and he tells me it’s okay and his parents are trapped in Manhattan, but are safe. We spend the rest of the day watching the television in nervous fear and desperation. Until 2001 life was easy and normal. Lives, including my own changed that day and the weeks following it. I can remember driving passed the train station near my house and noticing cars that never moved, left by their owners who would never return. There were a lot of horrors that day that I will never forget.

Those killed in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania were mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, wives, husbands, grandparents, grandchildren, and friends. People died of all ages and nationalities. I think we should remember the day and what it meant for families and how families were unexpectedly and cruelly separated that day. This post is dedicated to them, because I will never forget them. This post is dedicated to the soldiers and marines who have died since then to make sure this never happens again. This post goes to the families of all of them.

Please go ahead and share what you were doing, and where you were when our lives changed forever.