The Terrorizing Memory, September 11, 2001 by Krystal Smalley

From MemoryArchive

Who: Krystal Smalley
What: Terrorist Attacks
When: Septemer 11, 2001
Where: Florida

When I first learned the news I was in my first period peer counseling class in 7th grade. I was writing the date on my paper, 9/11/2001, when an announcement was made over the intercom, “Teachers please do not turn your televisions on until further notice. Thank you.” My teacher must have thought he was a rebel because as soon as he heard the announcement he turned his TV and flipped through the channels until he found what they didn’t want us to see. He got to channel 7 and the room went silent. Everyone in the room stared at the T.V as if they forgot how to blink; half the class had their hand clasped over their mouths. We all watched in horror and disbelief as the planes hit the twin towers. The room stayed still as the news castor explained this was a terrorist act. A girl sitting two rows behind me broke out in tears, breaking the silence. She caught her breath long enough to reveal that he mother worked in the 2nd tower that was hit and her stepfather worked nearby. Most of the class crowded around her to comfort her, but they were all lost efforts. No one could truthfully tell her that her parents survived; until someone could she would not be ok. Soon after, the bell rang. As I walked to my 2nd class I noticed everyone was swarmed around each other asking, “Did you hear what happened?!” and I saw a handful of people crying. When I got to my 2nd class, my teacher also has the TV on. She was staring at the screen speechless, which was completely out of character for her. I asked her to explain what was really going on because to be honest, I had never heard of the twin towers before that morning. I was so confused; I didn’t understand the importance of the twin towers or why this happened. My teacher explained that the twin towers were government buildings and both towers were deliberately hit by terrorists who hijacked multiple planes. They killed thousands of people on the plane and people working in the towers that morning. Then she told me that the news just reported that the pentagon was also hit. I was dumbfounded. I just could never fathom something like this could actually happen. I kept asking, “Why is this all happening?” But of course no one had an answer. For the rest of the day teachers pushed aside their lesson plans and had class discussions and answered as many questions as they could about the tragedy that happened that morning. I was so confused; it was like a whole new realization of the world. For the next few days it became harder and harder to watch TV because this terrorist act was always on and the number of deaths kept rising. People lost their fathers, their sisters, their sons or their best friends. The actions taken in this one day changed peoples lives forever.