The Day

I woke up. It was Tuesday. I got ready for the day. As I waited for the time to slowly pace closer to the time I needed to leave for school, I grabbed a piece of toast and turned on the news. I watched trying to get some current event for class. I saw a headline Breaking News. I thought 'great, this will be a good one for class'. A plane crashed into a building. I kept forgetting the name of the building. I wrote WTC on my left palm to help me remember. I continued to listen to the reporters going back and forth on words such as 'accident', 'attack', 'engine issue', 'terrorist'!
I called my mom to see her thoughts on the matter. As we sat in the living room watching the T.V., not more than 3 minutes of us watching, a plane hit the second building. I saw it. I watched a plane crash into a the building. I knew right then and there that we were under attack. I looked at my palm and realized this was a name I would never forget on this day.

I was 12. Trying to find a current event for Ms. Sly's Utah History 7th period class. At school that day, I watched the attack unfold and the discoveries the media was finding. I didn't know how to feel. I saw something I will never forget.

Ten years have now passed. Ten years of wars. I'm not going to write about my thoughts and opinion on these wars. Rather, since the attack, we have, as a country become closer. I watched a documentary, 7 days in September that expresses how this shaped us. I am always amazed to see how united we come to help a mass of people who are suffering. When forced to do good things, we can do great things.


I mourn for those who have lost someone in the past ten years, either on 9/11 or in the wars. On the 5th anniversary I was a junior and created an essay on the attack. I read about the people. The firemen, the civilians, the victims of hatred and I understood then that it was not just two buildings that fell and a side of the pentagon. It was lives that were lost. A mother, a father, a sister, a cousin, a brother, a friend, each one of these people that died meant something to someone. I cannot forget the human side this attack had on all those affected.


I know this is something small to remember the 9/11 attack, but even after ten years, I remember the detail of that day so clearly. But how long will we as a country? I hope that that we continue to educate kids, who were babies on 9/11/2001 and tell them what is still affecting all of us now and will continue for many years to come.