Seven Years Ago

It seems hard to believe that 9/11/2001 was seven years ago.  The years have flown by so fast.  I was only 12 then, and in 8th grade.

I remember being in French class and my teacher was getting ready to put in a movie.  She was flipping through the channels and paused for a moment at a news channel.  They were showing footage of the towers on fire, but my teacher thought it was just old footage of the Oklahoma City Bombing, so she changed the channel and put the movie on.  Nobody thought anything else of it.

Next class was gym, and we were outside.  We came inside while the principal was partway through an announcement.   The only part I heard was the part where the principal was telling everyone who needed counseling to go to the student counseling center.  I, as well as the rest of my class, thought it was strange that the principal announced that.

I was walking to my next class, English, and one of my friends told me what happened.  I was completely shocked.  We spent the rest of the day watching the news.  Someone in my English class had family in NYC and she was frantically trying to find out if they were ok.  My Health teacher’s son was flying through Pennsylvania and my teacher was trying to find out if he was on the plane that crashed there.  Luckily he wasn’t.

I came home to find my mom watching the news.  We have distant family in NYC and Long Island, so she called them to make sure they were ok.  Luckily they were.  My brother and sisters were in elementary school and hadn’t been told about it, so we told them when they came home.

My family and I went to church that night and we had a candlelit service.   This year, my school had a flag raising ceremony, but it was at 5 am, so I didn’t go.  However, I thought about the family and friends of those who died all day.