September 11th, 2001. 6 am. I'm waking up to get on the school bus to go to Emma Elementary and enjoy another day of Kindergarten.
September 11th, 2001. 7:30 am. I'm finally at school and decide I want a sausage biscuit for breakfast. I walk through the line, my little legs taking me as fast as they can, grab my food, rattle off my school ID number (3760609), and sit by myself at the corner of a table.
September 11th, 2001. 8 am. I'm sitting in my desk. The school bell has just rung and the day is beginning. My teacher begins the day with her usual announcements about when our lunch will be and what we have planned for recess. Then we begin with whatever subject she decided to teach that day. I think it was reading.
September 11th, 2001. 8:55 am. We're writing something and my teacher's cell phone rings. All of us 5/6 year old's giggle because apparently cell phone's ringing in class are hysterical. Her face flushes, her jaw drops, and she scrambles to find the TV remote.
September 11th, 2001. 9:01 am. My teacher ran out of the room during her search for the remote to go talk to other teachers. She came back in the room and turned on the TV. There's some kind of building with a lot of smoke coming out. We still don't know what's going on, but any excuse to watch TV over doing school work is pretty cool.
September 11th, 2001. 9:03 am. There was a big fire at one of the big towers. My teacher starts crying a lot and my assistant teacher turns off the TV. Now we're kind of scared. We don't know what's going on.
September 11th, 2001. 9:30 am. We still haven't done any work. My teacher is still crying and we are sitting in our desks staring at each other. Some of us are still reading, some of us chose to color instead. We hear the intercom beep and the principle's voice comes through the speakers. He sounds sad. "Teachers and students, may I have your attention please. We feel the need to inform all of you on what has just happened. The World Trade Center has been attacked. Two planes struck the towers this morning. Many of you have already seen this. We are cancelling recess today. Please turn on your TV's to channel __ (I can't remember the exact number) to see President Bush speak on this. That is all.". A collective groan comes from the classroom. No recess? But if these things are so far away, why would anybody come to hurt us? Especially not a bunch of little kids.
September 11th, 2001. 2:50 pm. I am finally home. School was weird. I still don't understand what happened. My dad gave me a big hug and I didn't understand why. Usually he's not a very "huggy" type of person. He has the TV on and I see the same big explosion I saw before. I asked him what happened and he explained to me. Every. Detail. I was scared. Confused. Mad. Why would this happen?
Fast forward...
March, 2012. I am standing at one of the pools that is built inside the spot where one of the towers stood. I'm not sure which one it is. There are a bunch of names that I don't recognize, but I still cry because there are so many people that are now nothing but memories and engravings. There are families who never get to see their children again. People who never thought they would die when they went to work or went to shop that day. And then I see the most heartbreaking name in the stone, and it isn't even a name. There is a woman's name followed by the four most tear-jerking words I've read - "and her unborn child". Unborn child. Someone didn't even get to see the light of day before they were slaughtered by terrorists.
Fast forward...
September 11th, 2016. 8 am. I wake up and know what day it is. My heart is heavy. 15 years ago I saw something I didn't understand. As I grew up I did research. I watched endless videos. I read news reports and interviews and speeches. My heart broke every time and I cried every time I saw a mystery person jumping from the top of the World Trade Center. But I needed to see these things. It was important for me to understand the magnitude of what happened that day. It still is. The coming generation will be learning about September 11th, 2001 as a historical event, not an event in their lifetime. One day, I'll have to explain to my own daughter what happened so many years ago.
I will NEVER FORGET September 11th, 2001. I refuse to let myself, and I refuse to let others. The events on that date took almost 3,000 lives. 300 of those were firefighters, policemen, and first responders. The rest were every day citizens, just like you and me. We cannot let our nation ever forget these events. We must refuse to let anything like this happen again.
Never Forget. Never.
