Another September 11th is upon us and once again we all go back to that scary day 7 years ago and remember.........
I was single and teaching 5th grade at the time. Our school started at 8am and I always got to school very early to prepare for the day. So I had no idea what was going on. The kids came in as usual and another teacher came into my room and asked if I'd heard what was happening. I can't remember who it even was or what really happened next. She told me that something was happening in New York, and that's all I knew.
My schedule was that my students had "specials" (music, art, pe, etc.) at 8:15, and for about an hour. As soon as I dropped the kids off, I went straight for the office. Everything was buzzing. The phone was ringing off the hook, everyone looked frightened. The principal said she had a TV on in the library with news coverage, so the other teachers that had some "free" time and I all went to the library to watch. At that time the first tower had only been hit. While I was standing there with unbelief and confusion at what was happening, I watched the second plane hit. I couldn't contain my emotions any longer. I just was praying and thinking about all those people.
Well, after "specials" were over, I had to go right back to teaching and put on my best face. Of course the kids knew right away that there was something wrong. They saw the shock on my face and tears in my eyes. I told them generally that something very bad was happening. (I have no idea what I actually said, but it was something along the lines of terrorists attacking the US in New York and Washington, D.C.) Then of course that opened up all sorts of questions. What are terrorists? Why would they want to kill Americans? And so forth. All that I can say is that I did my best job answering the questions. Then of course, being a teacher, we just had to move on with the rest of the day.
A lot of our kids in that school had parents in the military, so those kids were especially nervous. Then we had all kinds of parents coming in and pulling their kids out of school for the day. I have no idea how I even managed to get through that day.
I do remember driving home in some sort of trance. All the while looking around me at others in their cars and wondering how they were taking the news. Did they know anyone killed? What were they thinking? Usually driving home I'd just zip right past everyone and not really care about the people in the other cars or really think about them or their lives at all. But not that day. We were all Americans. We were all in shock. We were all affected in some way. It didn't matter if we were democrats or republicans, christians or jews, young or old. We were all Americans, and that's what united us together.
We remember. Where were you?
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3 comments:
Golly, I was carpooling with some ladies in the office up to Denver for a meeting. The driver had a brother that worked in one of the Towers. I told her to turn the car around and go home, but she insisted on driving. Of course, we had not idea how bad it was. They sent us home and had the building on lockdown. I went home to our big empty house and turned on the TV to see the shocking images. I just wept.
I was waiting for a ride to pick me up for work and I was watching the news at my house. I also watched the second tower get hit. I don't really remember much of the rest of that day. I believe I was in shock!!
I was in American gov't class in college..kinda ironic isn't it?
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