Where were you on 9.11.01?

I was a few weeks into my sophomore year of high school. Back in the good 'ol days, the school system I grew up in was elementary/junior high/high school, so I was technically in my second year of high school but first year in the high school building. I remember how I felt those first few weeks of high school...bottom of the totem pole, but slowly growing up.

September 11, 2001 began like any other day. Pretty sure I woke up late that day (as always), but it was a beautiful day out. Fall was finally just around the corner, so I was in a fabulous mood. My first hour was German I, which was always a complete blast.

I remember walking through the hallway after class, and people were mumbling about something bad happening in NYC. Planes crashing into buildings or something like that. I'd heard someone say the Twin Towers had been hit and just didn't believe it. I mean, come on. This is the United States of America. That wouldn't happen here. I headed to 2nd hour Pre-AP English, not really giving the rumblings a second thought.

I stepped into class...and knew something really WAS wrong. The lights were dimmed, the TV was on, and my teacher was crying. I looked at the TV just as ABC showed the planes hitting the towers at two separate times. Then, they cut to the crash in Pennsylvania and the Pentagon, with its gaping hole. I quit breathing for a few seconds and remembered thinking, "Holy crap. We're under attack."

I did a quick mental checklist. I had family out there, but none of them worked at those places or had been flying that day. Then, I frantically started thinking about my dad. He was still in the Army at that time. What the hell would happen to him? Would he be sent over to fight off whoever thought it was cool to attack this country? Would I get to see him before he left? I just sat there in silence, watching coverage until my teacher turned the TV off and tried to teach. The rest of my day was shot though; I might as well have gone home. I was completely useless the rest of the day.

My classmates and I spent the day talking about what had happened. Watching coverage in rooms that would allow us to do so. My principal made a brief announcement about it, but I don't even remember what he said. Funny...no one really knew until that day that he was in the National Guard. After the war started, he was called away and was barely seen the last two years of my high school career. I think he's still serving this country through the National Guard...what a great man.

In 2001, we didn't have web-capable cell phones. Hell, we barely text messaged at that time. So everything we got was from the TV. I called my mom at lunch to make sure my dad was OK; post was on lockdown, and I couldn't get a hold of him via cell phone. She told me he was OK, but she didn't know when he'd get home. Where we live is the home of field artillery, so there were rumblings we might be targeted next. I pretty much lived in fear of getting attacked for months after that. When I got home from volleyball, I watched TV all night. Tried to figure out how this could happen, who would hate America so much that they thought it was OK to take over these planes, crash them into national landmarks and kill thousands of innocent people.

I remember feeling empty. Lost. Confused. I was 15 at the time, but I was old enough to know that what had happened wasn't an accident. That people from other places really did wish ill upon the greatest country in the world. I shed a lot of tears that night as I watched the images...kind of reminded me of the OKC bombing. When my dad got home after 8pm that night, I gave him a huge hug and breathed a sigh of relief. He told me that everything was OK, that he was staying put and that we would all be fine. He was right.

I don't think I realized then just how much life would change after that one catastrophic event. The past nine years have been full of ups and downs. New president, recession, two wars, lives lost [including my cousin's husband, who was one of the first 10 to die in the war when it started]...I never imagined that growing up in America would be like that. The first 15 years of my life had been pretty calm, without any worries...now, things were different. Much different.

It's true when they say you never forget where you were when something life-changing happened. I will definitely never forget where I was on September 11, 2001 - the day this country changed forever. We'll never forget.