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Manda
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I didn't know what they were talking about. -
Saucier, Mississippi M, Jan 13, 03
I was at school when I first heard about the attack. My school was only a 9th grade school so it was small and I could here teachers talking in the halls. My first period teacher didn't watch the news so I had no idea what everybody was talking about. When I was going to my second period, my second period teacher was running from another teachers room because she had been watching the news in there so I asked her what was going on. She said that she wasn't sure, that it sounded like New York had been bombed.
I'm was only 15 I was naiive and never thought that anything like that would happen, besides I don't know anybody from New York, I thought. Anyways, this is America, how bad could it be. Nothing like this happens to us. Nobody in my second period really knew what had happened either so we went along like we normally thought, however I had a horrible feeling in my stomach. My mama would call this just having a heart, but it was more I was terrified.
Then I went to my third period. This was the class that we had our lunch breaks during, and my lunch break was first. I put my books in my class waited for a couple minutes for the bell for our hall to go to lunch and in these minutes I realized that teachers have hearts. My tech teacher looked like she was about to cry. I wondered if she was sick or her mom sick, never did it cross my mind that it was because of NY.
I went to lunch, and there two of my friends had been watching the news in their classes and knew, if that's even the word, what had happened. They were making a joke of it, something I found strange, but then again, I had never heard of the Twin Towers before. None of us really new what they were. We ate, we laughed, we didn't even give the attack much thought, but then came time to go back to my third period.
My teacher was on the phone, but I thought that she was just talking to the computer people again, except she had the saddest look on her face. The look I had when I found out that my uncle had died. This, again, drew up the worry deep in the pit of my stomach. We care about our teachers so we asked her what was wrong, was it her mama. That's when I found out how real 9/11 was.
You see, my teacher has two cousins who are flight assisstants, both working up north, both working on that very day. She had, in fact, been talking to her mama, but not about her health, about the very breath of life that her cousins may have lost.
This is when I got to watch the news. Maybe, it's because I'm from a small town, or a safe country, but I never thought that something like this could happen. I never thought that something that would happen way up north would affect me. But it did, not just a little bit, but for the rest of my life.
September 11 taught me so much more than anybody could've ever tried to. I've always been patriotic, some people say is a southern thang, but I say it's an American thing, but that day that long, scary, heart-wrenching, misunderstanding day made me all the more proud of the country where I'm from.
I've learned that no matter how obnoxious or thick-headed some of the people from around me are, we've all got one thing in common: 9/11. I know that when I'm old and the generations that follow me ask me where I was on 9/11 I will be able to tell them about every tear I cried, every anger I felt, and all the love I've seen.
When I was in headstart I remember mouthing the words to "I Pledge Allegiance" but now when I'm in first period no matter how sleepy I am, I stand and I say every word. I can know appreciate being an American and realizing the opportunities I have. I have recently been trying to help a Mongolian exchange student who came to America so that she could go to one of our colleges and became my friend to feel out her college forms. I'm only a Sophmore but I do my best because I know what it's like to be an American and I want to give that to her. I am so proud that I live in a country where people, every day want to go to make their life better, and now that were not afraid to show how much love we have for our country it's easier to help other people.
Because of my third period and actually finding out what life means, I am a better person. I never thought that we'd have a Pearl Harbor but we do and were going to make it through. It'll take blood, sweat, and many tears, but we're going to overcome and be better because of 9/11. I'm still naiive about things but because of the experience I had in third period, I'm aware of it, therefore may someday if humanly possible I'll realize a way to change it. Anythings possible, even loving people you've never met, not yet, not until you have to go, and in a way thanks to them it may not be for a very long time.
Thank you, for giving me a hero in third.
M, Jan 13, 03
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