We Remember

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There are very few dates in history where I can remember exactly what I was doing at a particular time.  September 11, 2001 I was in 2nd period study hall/drill team in Ms. Henson’s office.  2nd period was reserved for the freshman drill team training class which my sister was taking.  I wasn’t a senior choreographer, but for some reason I had study hall assigned with Ms. Henson that period.  Some days I did homework, other days I ran errands for her, I occasionally helped out or watched the drill team training class going on.  On this particular day I was taking a nap in Henson’s office while she was working with the freshman. 

Around 9am our principal came over the announcements and told us the World Trade Center had been attacked.  This was significant in itself because I can only remember Mr. Blankenship coming on the announcements in two other instances while I was in high school: 1) to announce the death of one of our classmates freshman year, and 2) to announce our disqualification from the state football game in 1998.  I knew when I heard his voice I shouldn’t be napping and should probably be listening. 

I think I went out into the gym where Ms. Henson was watching the freshman dance; I’m not sure they even heard the announcement over the music.  I knew once I spoke with her this was a bigger deal than I thought it was.  At 17 years old I remember thinking, “what is the World Trade Center?” and “what is a terrorist?”  At that time in my life I couldn’t really grasp what was happening.

When I got to Mrs. Roger’s 3rd period Anatomy class more details were piecing themselves together.  I remember other students talking about teacher’s crying.  Mrs. Rogers was trying to get the radio news on her little antenna radio.   Parents began picking up their kids from school.  All day kids were talking more and more about what was happening.  By lunch the school had set up TV’s in the cafeteria (by that time I remember not many students still being at school) and I was finally able to visualize what happened that morning.  Planes had intentionally crashed into the buildings.  When the buildings collapsed there were still people inside.  There were still people inside. 

I remember getting home from school that afternoon and my parents explaining the entire situation to me.  I don’t think our TV turned off for days. 

The most vivid memory I have is from a few nights later in the week.  I was sitting at the kitchen table working on Matt’s locker sign and I could hear the TV on in the living room.  The news reporter was interviewing 2 kids, about my age, about their dad.  They had been walking around NYC all week with a poster with their dad’s picture on it hoping somewhere knew his whereabouts and praying he got out of the tower.  He worked on the 110th floor of the WTC.  I remember thinking, “those buildings fell DAYS ago, and you are still looking for your dad?!”  By then they were not pulling people out of the rubble, just bodies.  These kids were MY AGE and looking for their dad in the pile.  Oh. my. heavens. 

We will never forget.

Friday at school I took some time out of study hall to talk to my students about September 11.  At the time my kids were only 2 years old, so they have no memories of that day.  They all knew September 11th was a big day in our nations history, but none of them understand.  They asked me questions about what I remembered, and hopefully I was able to piece things together for them. Many of them had seen this video another student had posted on facebook, so we took a minute to talk about that.  It’s amazing these kids don’t have a frame of reference on a day such as September 11th.  I hope that between their parents, me, youtube video and news reports today they are able to understand what happened here 10 years ago.  We all need to remember this day, the families, the firefighters and first responders of September 11, 2001.