Never Forget.

today, my thoughts and prayers are with each and every family that lost someone in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. even though it's been 9 years already, i will never ever forget the horrific events that unfolded on that horrific day. i was in high school, sitting in journalism class, working on a project. the teacher had been away from the class for a few minutes, outside the classroom on the phone with her sister. we didn't think anything of it, and kind of just pretended like we were working on what she asked us to work on while she stepped outside. a few minutes later she rushed into the room and turned on the school's television. the image on the screen was the twin towers, and one of them had smoke starting to come out of it. one of my classmates jumped up and ran to the classroom's computer. apparently a plane had flown straight into one of the twin towers. when we heard that, we all actually started laughing in disbelief. how could a plane possibly fly straight into one of the tallest buildings in the world?? how did they not see it? then in the minutes after, we slowly began to realize just what was happening. our country was being attacked. at that point we didn't know by who. it could have been by some crazy disgruntled airline passenger or pilot or it could have been by an entire country. all we knew was that someone actually meant to fly straight into a building holding hundreds of innocent people. this faceless enemy was attacking us. another plane flew into the other tower. here we were in journalism class, and we were watching one of the biggest tragedies of our lifetime unfolding before our eyes. anyone who had a cell phone was pulling it out and trying to call a parent who worked in the city but no one could get through to anyone because everyone was trying to get through to someone. a lot of students at my school had at least one parent who commuted into the city to work everyday, as we lived just about a half hour outside of manhattan. our teacher didn't know what to do: keep the tv off because it was upsetting people or leave the tv on so we knew what was happening not even an hour from our doorstep. the bell rang and class was over. the rest of the day i remember in chunks, some of it as clear as if it happened yesterday, and some of it is a shocked haze. all of my teachers except for one left the tv on throughout the day. there was a third plane crash into the pentagon, and a fourth crash that apparently never reached it's intended target. then the first tower collapsed before our very eyes. in drama class i burst into tears and got so overwhelmed the teacher gave me a hall pass and told me go for a walk and take my time coming back. the shock was wearing off and the horrific acts of terrorism were beginning to sink in. someone was trying to hurt us. not trying, they WERE hurting us. my mind drifted to memories i had of growing up and taking the path train to the world trade center stop whenever i had an audition in the city and was traveling in with my mom. suddenly a chill ran down my spine as i came out of my shocked stupor to realize i had actually taken the train into the city, to the world trade center stop, just the day before for an audition. these events were becoming all to real for me now as i walked the halls, and saw panic stricken students lining up at the pay phone, waiting to get in touch with a loved one. it was a somber scene: classroom after classroom of silence. eery silence. no teacher teaching. just the echo of the tv in each classroom blasting the same updates. the other tower was going to fall. people were trapped on the floors above where the plane hit. people were jumping from 50 stories up. the image of a man and a woman holding hands as they plummeted to their death will never leave my brain. even though i would very much like to forget some of the images and details, there's no chance in hell that that will happen. at lunch time one of my friends that always sat at my lunch table was missing for the better half of lunch. when she joined us she was in tears, as her parents were flying back from their vacation that morning and she couldn't get in touch with them because the phone servers were all busy, so no one could get through to anyone. she eventually got in touch with them and thank goodness they were okay. not much school stuff was taught that day. although i do remember my last class of the day, algebra 2, where my teacher desperately tried to teach her planned lesson, despite all of our eyes glued to the tv behind her as we all wondered if, when, and how the last remaining tower was going to also disintegrate before our very eyes. i didn't understand her actions then, but in retrospect i totally get it- she was probably so scared herself and was trying not to show it. about 10 minutes into the class, she must have gotten overwhelmed by the random but frequent outbursts of tears and gasps throughout the room, and she stormed over to the tv and shut it off. the rest of math class felt like it was taking forever to end. it was clear no one could concentrate on the algebra lesson. everyone was zoned out, replaying the horror scenes over and over again in their minds. the bell rang signaling the end of the day, and everyone raced to get to their rides home. the second i got home i turned on the tv and sat with my parents watching the news. the second tower fell. and commuters, covered in dust, were walking across the george washington bridge to get home to their families. the rest is just a blur.