I Will Never Forget

the morning of September 11, 2001. I was in 6th grade. I remember I was in my room getting ready for school, listening to Brad and Jackie on my alarm clock radio. I heard them talking about the Twin Towers, but I had no idea what the towers even were. On the way to school my Mom tried to explain to me what the Twin Towers were and why this was a big deal, but I still didn't quite understand it all. Band was my first class, and I remember we missed an announcement because we were warming up. It was hard to remember everything until that point, because I still didn't realize the severity of it all. Travis Vitek walked into the class and said "Mr. Randall, someone crashed another plane into the other tower." Mr. Randall thought he was joking. He went to the office, and came back totally serious. We started talking about about it more, and we listened to the radio. I still wasn't sure why this was such a big deal. My next class was math with Mrs. Floyd. She had a TV in her room. She told us we were going to spend the whole class period watching the news. At first I thought this was so lucky for us- we wouldn't even have homework! Then she turned on the TV and I remember distinctly, seeing it for the first time. I remember my eyes welling up, and the pit in my stomach as I watched over and over those planes crashing into the towers. The seriousness of it all hit me flat in the face during that second hour of sixth grade. Mrs. Floyd talked with us about it. I remember putting my head on my desk and thinking about all those innocent people. I thought a lot about all those people who lost their loved ones so unexpectedly. I thought how hard that would be for me as a sixth grader, if my Mom or Dad were in one of those buildings. I thought about all the people who were still waiting. Waiting to know if their loved ones were alive or dead. I thought a lot about the people who had done this. How could someone DO this to innocent people? People they had never even met! I don't remember much else about that day, ten years ago. I'm sure we watched the news throughout the rest of our classes, and talked with other teachers. I'm sure the lunchroom was still noisy, and I still went to volleyball practice. I don't remember every fine detail, but I remember the feelings I had when I realized what had been done to our country, and I will never forget. Never.