9/11 - never forget

I know that this post should have come yesterday, but better late then never, I think.

9 years ago, on September 11, 2001, I was in 7th grade. We were all at an assembly about some club that helped out the less fortunate. Of course, boring assembly, but it got me out of class. As the assembly was over, I walked back to my second period history class with Mr. Casagrande, on the second floor of the Middle School and there it was, on the TV - the towers were on fire. Now being in 7th grade, I couldn't fully understand what was going on, where these towers were exactly - in 5th grade, incidentally, when we went to NYC for our field trip, I took pictures of the towers and labeled them twin "stacks" in my photo album - and why someone would hit them with a plane. Mr. Casagrande explained to us that these towers were in New York City and someone wanted to target the U.S. and kill innocent people. We spent the rest of the period just watching the TV.

Once class was over, and we all walked out into the hallway, panic started to set it. Living in Northeastern PA, a lot of students had family that lived in NYC, and they didn't know if they were okay. The rest of the day, for whatever reason, all my classes went on normally. Mr. Casagrande was the only teacher who put the news on. I don't even think I knew that the Pentagon was hit until I got home and watched the news, not that I would have even known what that would have been. Our school was more focused on NYC, since we were closer. We were completely detached from the attack on the Pentagon.

As I got home, I met up with my brother, who was only in 3rd grade, and I don't know that he understood what was going on either. My dad picked us up at the bus stop and we talked about it on the 30 second drive home. I remember going home and realizing that my mom had no clue what was going on. She was a stay at home mom at the time, and didn't turn the TV on all day, so she didn't know anything happened. I just remember going home and all 4 of us sitting watching the news and what happened.

I wish I was older and had more of a concept of what was going on, but I was only 12 and had a limited amount of knowledge as to what was going on. I remember seeing the paper in the upcoming days and I remember seeing the ESPN magazine and seeing that nothing happened the week following. It was weird. I also remember finding out that the plane in Shanksville crashed, because it was in Pennsylvania, even though NYC was closer, the fact that something happened IN PA was scary.

Never forget those who were involved in the 9/11 attacks, I continue to pray for those who were affected by that day. Never forget those NYPD and NYFD who gave their lives to save just a few more people. Never forget those brave individuals who so courageously decided to stand up to the hijackers on United 93 and crashed the plane in Shanksville, rather than killing who knows how many people by hitting whatever building the plane was aimed for, possibly in Washington DC.

May God bless America!