Remember September

September 11, 2001. I was just beginning my Senior year of High School.  The day started out normal as I arrived at my AP Calculus class (which started before school did) at 7:30 in the morning. Then, in walks a fellow student who says we need to turn the TV on right away because an airplane has hit one of the World Trade Centers.  We turn it on and watch, wondering if this was some sort of mistake. Then the footage comes of the second plane hitting.  It isn't an accident. We watch in disbelief for about 10 minutes until our teacher, Coach Hill, turns the TV off and tries to get us to focus on Calculus.  A few minutes later Coach Portela runs into the room and says, "The Pentagon just blew up." Coach Hill's jaw drops and he says, "This means war."  The TV goes back on and Calculus is forgotten for the day.

During my first hour class we are in the computer lab trying to do work, but all of our attention is on the big screen TV at the front of the room, airing live coverage of what is happening back East.  As we watch, it happens.  The first tower falls.  Then the second.  I turn to my friend, Molli, and say, "Our children and grandchildren are going to watch this in their history classes, and we just saw it live!"

 In every classroom the TV is on.  You just couldn't NOT watch what was happening. So many questions floated through the air. Was this the beginning of the end? When would we retaliate? The name Osama bin Laden began to be tossed around by the news anchors.

Fast forward almost ten years.  In the busyness of after school, my son comes running up to me and says, "Mom, did you know that there used to be these two tall towers, but airplanes crashed into them and they fell down?  The firefighters and police went to help but a lot of them died."  And just like that, the whole conversation seemed so unreal.  Was my son really coming home to tell me he'd learned about 9/11 in school?  Had it really been that long ago?  Because for me it was a moment frozen in time, like it had just happened.  And now my child gets it.  We've tried to explain it to him before, but something finally clicked in his six year old head and he is beginning to understand how terrible it was.  A day no one, who was alive, will ever forget.  Where were you when you heard the news?