Remembering September 11th
19 years later
September 11th 2001 changed the United States but for some people including me its when childhoods were taken away. I grew up one hour outside of New York City. My mom grew up five minutes away so the New York skyline with the World Trade Center buildings were a big part of my childhood. We would take the ferry and on the way back you would see the iconic skyline on our way back to New Jersey.
When the first tower was hit 19 years ago I was in gym class. When class was over we went back to our classroom and heard whispers in the halls from teachers about what happened. Then the second tower was struck. The principal of the school who was new and just starting the year like the rest of us came over the loud speaker and told us that we would not be going outside for recess because it was not safe. Many fights flew over where I lived while taking off or before descending into Newark Airport. He also told us that two planes have crashed into both towers of the World Trade Center in New York City.
My mom ended up coming to pick me up that morning because she wanted to make sure I was safe. She found out what happened after passing my sisters’ preschool and seeing a packed parking lot because parents were picking them up. As my mom picked up from middle school I see my neighbor Jamie getting picked up also. Her grandmother worked in the city near Ground Zero. Jamie’s grandmother ended up working from home that day and wasn’t one of the thousands of people killed. I will never forget seeing her in the hallway crying as she went to her mother.
My eyes were stuck to the television after leaving school and learning about the planes going down at the Pentagon and near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. I had a new fear of planes flying over my house something I never really thought about before. As a 10-year-old growing up in America I lost the innocence that no one would mess with the greatest country in the world. I didn’t know I would have my first “I remember where I was when” moment in the fifth grade.
The country rallied together after the events of that day. First Responders and companies from around the country helped go through the rubble in the following days and months following the towers being struck. We really became the United States of America.