Remembering 911

For many Americans, 9/11 was a confusing and shocking time. Every day, thousands of people from all over the world visit the very sight where our two towers came crashing down. Many families are torn apart because of this catastrophic event and many are left wondering “why?” For me, remembering 9/11 is a difficult thing to do. I was only a little girl, but, I knew the world had changed forever. It was a normal September morning. I was in my second grade class with my favorite teacher Mrs. McClellan. We had just arrived to school and put our backpacks in the closet. We had already been through the normal announcement process and said “The Pledge of Allegiance.” My teacher wanted us to clean our desks with shaving cream, so my classmates and I were spraying shaving cream all over the desks and playing around when our class phone rang. My teacher answered the phone and began to shake. She dropped the phone suddenly and fell to her knees and began to cry. All I remember seeing after that was our principle and other teachers scrambling to get all of us out of school and on to the buses as quickly as possible. When I arrived home, my parents didn’t acknowledge that I was home early and was standing in the doorway. The look of utter fear and shock filled their eyes and I knew I shouldn’t bother them. I went upstairs and put my things on my bed and went straight to my brother’s room. He didn’t look well either and I asked him, “Bubba, what’s happening?” He brought me downstairs to where my parents were staring, in complete awe and astonishment at the television and pointed. It was 8:51 in the morning, and the image on the television screen was one that would stick within my mind for all of my life. The first tower was burning and I remember the reporter on the news in complete alarm and panic telling his audience, “This is not fake! This is real! We have been attacked!” About ten minutes later, my parents still glued to the television screen, I remember hearing