My 9/11.

I remember exactly where I was on September 11th 2001. I was in the 3rd grade at Seawell Elementary in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It was a bright sunny day as the fourth week of school was progressing. In the mornings we would play kickball outside of the cafeteria and then the bell rang when it was time for us to go to class. Around 8:30 am is when my teacher started our lesson plan and everything seemed normal for all of 30 minutes, that was until 8:46 am came around.

Just before 9:00 am it seemed like the teachers were right outside of the classroom discussing something juicy. I didn't care much about what it was until they got us outside and told us about what was happening in New York City. They told us that two planes were crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center and that it was done on purpose as an attack. The first thing that came to mind for me personally was how one of my favorite music artist ever, Aaliyah Haughton had just died in a plane crash just two weeks and three days prior and now another disaster involving an airplane has just occurred. The school day went by pretty fast after that. The only thing anyone could talk about was the attack and further conversational pandemonium grew when we found out the Pentagon in Washington DC was hit and that the attack was still going on.

The whole day I didn't actually see what happened until I got home from school. When I got home my mother was sitting on the couch in the living room oddly calm with a smile on her face and the tv wasn't on yet like it always was by the time I got home from school. When I came in and sat next to her on the couch she asked me how my day was like she always did and then she asked me did I know that we were attacked today. I told her I knew about it though I had not actually seen it for myself. By the time my sister got home she started talking about it with my mom and me and she gave us some shocking information. Apparently one of her classmates had a father who worked at the World Trade Center and was very distraught when they saw what was happening on tv. Finally my mom turned on the news and I saw the chaos for myself and boy did it grip me.

This was the first time I had ever watched the news as a kid and actually understood full well what was going on. When everyone told us what happened at school it sounded bad enough, but to actually see it with my own two eyes was apocalyptic. This was unbelievable, almost like a movie, only this was a surrealistic nightmare. Seeing the footage of the towers being deliberately hit, along with the Pentagon and then the towers collapsing told me right then and there what president Bush would later announce to the rest of the world, we were going to war and boy was it scary. The whole ordeal reminded me of the history of the Pearl Harbor attack which I had seen the movie for months before the attack on 9/11. I knew then and there that this was my generation's Pearl Harbor.

Later that day I saw something on the news that I had never seen outside of inclement weather, and it was school closing and delays, to me, this was crazy. Even though the attacks happened in New York and Washington it was effecting every other state and region around the country, this really was an attack on the entire country. When I went to school the next day the attacks were all anyone could talk about, teachers and students both. Much of our lesson plans were centered around discussing the attacks as well. Later that week my dad went to Washington DC to go visit a friend of his who worked for the government. That friend took him to the Pentagon to show him how it was still on fire. That same weekend I went over some of my extended family's house in Greensboro, North Carolina and the attacks were all anyone were talking about and watching on tv there as well. My godbrother asked me and my sister what if they call my parents, who were both veterans of the US Navy, back into service to come fight and my older sister said she would not let my mother leave. That moment alone really gave me an understanding of how dire the current state of the world was for all of us.

After those first couple of weeks it became clear that the new state of fear that the country was living in was just beginning. By September 21 the infamous anthrax attacks happened with letters and packages containing the deadly chemical being delivered to people who would later get sick and even killed by the poison. This is when the fear was made more personal and scarier for me because now the attack was being brought to our very doorsteps as opposed to just public square. My mindset was how safe are we when the danger can now be mailed to our very homes?. My mom was super paranoid because we always received a lot of packages from our family members in California. This was also the only year as a kid that my mom didn't let me and my sisters go trick or treating because she was afraid that we might pick up something laced with anthrax.

September 11th, 2001 shaped the landscape of the world as a whole so much that many kind of forgot that it was 9/11 that created this new world we were living in to start with. By September 11th, 2002 I was attending Glenwood Elementary in Chapel Hill and on the one year anniversary of 9/11 my 4th grade music teacher had us sing "This Land is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie on the intercom in the Principal's office for the whole school to hear to commemorate the one year anniversary of 9/11. Over the next few of years 9/11 kind of faded from my focus with so many other big things happening into my personal life. September 11th 2001 would eventually come back in my life like never before thanks to one of the most incredible films I had ever seen in the spring of 2006.

By 2006 I was living with my dad in Greensboro, North Carolina. One Friday night on April 28th he came to get me from my grandma's house and told me we were going to the movies. When I asked him what we were going to see he told me "United 93". Being that I had no idea what that movie was, I didn't want to go see the film, but he said I had to go to the movies, even if that meant I saw something else, so I chose to see the children's film Akeelah and the Bee. Being that his film was longer than mines he told me to come sit in his film for the last 30 minutes after mine ended. After my movie ended I went to sit in United 93 for the final act of the film. When I walked in that screening room I walked into an emotional rollercoaster. What I saw looked very familiar and felt eerily reminiscent of the year 2001.

I was actually captivated by what I was watching and felt emotional shockwave go through me during the film's final moments. When the epilogue comes on screen at the ending I realized this film was about 9/11/01 and this was a part of the story that I had heard about, but didn't know well, the story of United Airlines Flight 93, the fourth aircraft hijacked that day, but didn't reach its target because the passengers fought back against their hijackers. When we left the theater there was a collective sadness and silence from every viewer that walked out of that screening room. This film really tugged at the heartstrings. When we got in my dad's car and left he asked me did I know what that was and I told him that "that was the September 11th thing". He was so moved by the film he called a friend and told him the effect it had on everyone who watched the film in the screening room.

Over the course of the next year I started to see United 93 a lot on home media when it started to come on television. The more I saw the film, the more I was fascinated with it and the more all the memories of that fateful morning back in 2001 and the new day in age it created was starting to come back to me, almost like a long lost friend. From there I ended up buying both films United 93 and World Trade Center on DVD both of which made me want to look into the full history of that moment in time. I eventually started watching a lot of documentaries on tv networks like National Geographic, History Channel, and even the Discovery Channel whenever they would show a documentary about 9/11 or something related to the war on terror that would mention 9/11. Whenever I made it to a computer I would internet surf for 9/11 webpages and documentaries that had as much info on the attack as possible.

I made it to a point where I learned so much about 9/11 that I could tell you almost everything about many of the victims, survivors and witnesses. Something that really stuck out to a lot of the people around me was that I even knew who all the terrorist involved in the plot were. Some found my knowledge of 9/11 dark and grim, others found it fascinating and enlightening. My older sister often joked and said I was obsessed with 9/11, I honestly have to say she was right in retrospect. My grandmother on the other hand thought it was great that I was getting a sense of history about the attacks. She felt that it was very important that young people such as myself knew the significant that day.

If I was to describe why I became so attached to 9/11 and why it has resonated with me like it because of multiple reasons. First, it was a real moment in world history that I was there for and can remember how it played out around me and influenced the future world I would grow up. Secondly, the details of everything that happened and everyone involved just genuinely fascinated me because of the impact it would later have on the world. Lastly, 9/11 resonated with me because of all the life lessons that were taught day. From making sure the people you love know how much you love them, to knowing not to take a single day for granted, and knowing that even in the darkest of time, there is light to be found.

To this day September 11th 2001 is still a big part of me. I've heard a lot of stories from so many people in my life from best friends like my teachers to random strangers whom I've met wherever, that have stories and connections to 9/11 that they've shared with me and I treasure those stories. For the past couple of years I have attended the 9/11 Stairclimb, an event that takes place in many cities around the country that commemorates the firefighters who gave their lives on that fateful day whenever the anniversary comes around. I attended the stairclimb earlier today and once again it was amazing. September 11th, 2001 will always be important to me, I'll always remember how important this day is and I'll never forget the lessons learned from this day.