I was never the type of kid that watched the news. It made me aware of the ugly world I didn't want to know of. However, after the towers were hit I couldn't keep my eyes off the TV, watching the same clip over and over again-the clip that showed the towers being hit by the jetliner and the explosion that followed after. I was horrified knowing that the city I had just seen destroyed, was the same city I visited the week earlier to see my sister. I knew it would never be the same. New Yorkers are the only people that will ever understand the magnitude of 9/11. Many believe September 11th only lasted one day, when in fact, the aftermath of funerals and the search for family and friends lasted until February. The attack made on the World Trade Center left New Yorkers in fear anticipating what tomorrow would bring.
It was early in the school year when my friends and I were sitting around talking about our wild weekend. We sat there, so oblivious, not knowing what happened earlier that morning. My friend Jenn came inside the classroom on her cell phone. She hung up with her mother and sat down. We knew something was wrong, by the tone of her voice, as if someone had died and she was just receiving the news. When we asked her what was the matter, she told us that the towers in the city had been hit. Trying to make light of the situation, I said "Hey, maybe we"ll get out of school early." When I look back, and re-live that day, it makes me ill. I wonder how I could say something so stupid, something so ignorant. This was not something that could be made lighter. I was so unaware of what was happening in the city 30 minutes away from me. Shortly after, the administrators came on the loudspeaker and asked that everyone assemble inside the auditorium. My entire school sat in fear, watching the airplanes crash into the towers, watching people run for their lives from the burning buildings, running from the ash that was sweeping the city.