Where Were You?

9-11-2001:
My mom came in and woke me up saying "Ali you need to see this." So I groggily got up and walked out to the TV and all my sleepiness washed away. I saw the second plane hit the tower and watched them fall. I felt a sense of dread that I hadn't felt before, and all I could think was "please let this be some sort of freak accident" until I heard the reporters talking and they said it was terrorists. And I'll be honest, I'd never really heard of terrorists before, cuz they weren't all that real to me yet. 9/11 changed everything.

I was 13 and in 7th grade. There wasn't any teaching that day, no homework not really a lot of talking even at lunch. We just sat watching the TV all day and discussing things we didn't understand with our teachers.

My dad was supposed to fly home that day, but luckily he had found a flight the night before. I remember thinking about the pain of all the families that lost their loved ones that day. What we as a country lost. I was devasated until I realized that this was just a trial we would have to endure as a country. I believe we have, when has our country been stronger and more united? Strangers help each other more often now, people from all walks of life shared this tragedy and we became stronger for it.

When I graduated high school, we went on a trip to New York as my graduation present and we visited Ground Zero. Never have I been so humbled by what I saw, and tears flowed freely as we walked through a chapel that was across the street from the site. I believe the Red Cross used it as their site for awhile. There was a group of teenagers being super disrespectful and my grandma walked up to them with tears in her eyes and gave them a piece of her mind  but without raising her voice. Needless to say, they shut up and apologized.

Where were you when the towers fell?