On this day ten years ago, i was seven years old. Sitting in my second grade class room, learning something about grammer. My teacher Ms. Alexandra was called outside by the principal, we all started talking in our normal carefree second grade way, wondering why the principal was there and who was in trouble this time (my grade was always the ones causing trouble, no help from me of course)
When she finally walked back in her face was white and she was crying. You could have heard a pin drop.
Now looking back i feel very sorry for my teacher, how do you explain to seven year olds that two planes had just struck two towers in new york, towers that none of your class had ever even heard of. How do you explain that thousands of people died in these towers?
How do you explain that?
We of course all lost it and started crying, we thought they might fly a plane into our school. Strangely enough we weren't too far off. Our school was near one of the largest oil refineries in Louisiana, it was one of the possible targets for another attack.
All of our parents were called to come pick us up. I just remember my mom crying the whole way home, then turning on the TV and watching the towers, over and over again. She would turn it off when they showed the people falling, I'm glad she did i was too young to understand that. At home was when i began to understand how big a deal this was. That night i was too scared to sleep alone so i slept with my mom in her bed. I don't think i really understood what a tragedy this was.
Even now i feel guilty that i never felt the horror all the older people did, yes i was scared, but for me and my family. I never felt the loss of all the people that had died in the towers.
It wasn't until two years ago when they were replaying the footage that i broke down and everything really hit me.
To the victims of September 11th 2001.
I Won't Forget You.
