Like most kids on September 11th, 2001 I was in school, fourth grade to be exact. At around 8:45 that morning my mom checked me out of school to go to an dentist appointment. As soon as I got in the car my mom told me that something had happened in New York City and that some building had gotten hit by a plane. I had no idea what she was talking about, nor did I know what the world trade center was so I brushed it off and didn't really worry about it.
Once we got to the dentist office and we walked back into the back room where I was going to have my teeth cleaned I caught a glimpse of the news coverage on TV. I saw the second tower get hit live on TV. It was surreal, I couldn't quite understand the magnitude of the situation but as I looked around the room and saw the horror on the faces of adults all around me I figured out quickly that it was serious.
I had a short cleaning and my mom decided to keep me at home for the rest of the day and not send me back to school. I, of course, was ecstatic that I didn't have to go back to school.
I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do all day and I turned the TV on to watch some cartoons. The TV clicked on and the first thing I saw was the news coverage of the towers collapsing. I was completely taken back. There were news anchors speaking and they just kept looping the same clips of video over and over again. My mom and I sat there for most of the morning watching the news and taking it all in. It was surreal.
I understand now that I did not fully grasp the magnitude of this event. I find myself lucky and partially unique because I heard about 9/11 as it was happening. After I went back to school the next day, everyone was talking about the attacks and I found out that most of the teachers in the school didn't even tell there students what was going on and so most kids didn't find out until they got home after school. I can see the reasoning behind that logic, but I partially disagree with the decision to hide it.
I too remember what it was like the morning of 9/11. My teacher turned on the TV and told us what was going on. She made an error however, when she pulled down a map of the U.S. and told us the terrorists were trying to reach the White House- in the state of Washington! For a long time I figured that’s where the WH was.
ReplyDeleteI think that your 911 experience was really unique Travis because most everybody in class would probably say that they were at school when it happened. I really appreciated my teachers approach in informing us about the events. They had us all sit around in a circle and explained what was going on, a lot of us not even knowing what the twin towers or the pentagon was.
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