"Where Were You During 9/11?"

Today is September 11th, 2009, eight years since both towers of the World Trade Center fell that one dark morning. Every year since that tragedy, people always ask me, "Hey, Ray. Where were YOU when the towers fell?" It may not be interesting, but I'll answer that question.

Flashback to September 11, 2001. I was only 14 years old and in my freshman year in L______ High School. It was going to be an ordinary day at school, as I sat down in my first class (a Spanish class) and awaited instruction from the teacher. While I sat down, someone entered the classroom and said something about the World Trade Center being attacked. To be honest, I didn't know nor care to know the importance of the towers until that day. Sure, I remembered seeing the towers in films and postcards and in that one "Simpsons" episode, but I never really saw it as a big thing. It wasn't until the start of the second class of the day (Euclidean Geometry) that I saw them fall for the first time. I remembered I had a test that day and I didn't want to take it. So I decided to use the knowledge of the towers falling to distract her long enough to forget about the test, whether it was true or not. At first, my dyke of a teacher didn't believe me, but after egging her on for a few minutes, she gives up and turns on the TV. We turn to CNN, and we see the second tower just getting hit. She goes "Oh my Lord..." with a dropped jaw and everyone in the room was wide-eyed, glued to the TV set. We just witnessed America getting attacked.

As the day went by, each subsequent class was pretty much us watching live coverage of the attack site, which would later be referred to as "Ground Zero". There were no assignments or tests that day. Instead, everyone was in total shock about the day's events.

After I returned home, my siblings and I watched TV coverage of the attacks from all of the networks, still refusing to believe that the attacks happened. Later that night, then-President George W. Bush gave a speech about the days attacks. Whether people liked or disliked the president, one thing was clear: politics was thrown out of the window that night as America was united, fearing that another force would strike us again.

About 3000 people died in those attacks, including the passengers of the planes that were hijacked to hit the towers as well as casualties in the Pentagon, which was also hit. Whether you would like to believe that terrorists masterminded the attack or that it was an inside job masterminded by the Bush administration, one thing was clear: 9/11 happened and was the first day of a new era.

Never forget.