It was early, I remember. I was always a little groggy in Spanish class, never really had to pay too close attention because I was gifted in native tongues. It also helped that my friend Charlene and I were pretty high up in my teacher's ass as Spanish Club members and vocal, know-it-all pupils.
I was rushing to finish an assignment that was due that morning when Senora Karkis hung up the phone behind her desk and ran to turn on the television.
The class fell silent. Images of the Twin Towers were shown, and through strange words from frantic news anchors and crowds on the streets, we learned that something was horrifyingly wrong in New York, where our teacher and my favorite mentioned classmate were from.
Throughout the day, we watched as more shocking footage flooded the classrooms and turned the halls of our school upside down. I hadn't realized the severity of the situation until I saw people being interviewed on television. In high school, any break from class is a welcome one, even when you don't understand it, but the cries of onlookers at Ground Zero changed that pretty quickly for Estero's student body. I wish now that I had been more alert. That I wasn't so wrapped up in my not yet important, adolescent life. Even in grade school, we did know that this was a big deal... we were allowed to call our families, touch base with our parents and loved ones if they were in New York. I remember being confused, and scared that what was happening there would happen where we were, in Fort Myers, Florida.
I knew that our country was resilient. We're fighters. But this was different from anything that we had just learned in our history books. Outside of seeing the Gulf War on the news, and knowing my uncle was there fighting, which I was too young to really remember, every other National Crisis was something I had only read about. I was prideful when our flags turned up left and right, to know that we wouldn't take this horror show sitting down.
On the Anniversary of this awful day so many years ago, I am saddened and angry. I listened to some audio of the planes that were hijacked a couple of nights ago. It was important. I hadn't taken the time to do it before. We all know what happened, we all know how we felt. But taking the time to hear and see what we hadn't been directly effected with by such tragedy is something that I think wouldn't hurt to pay this day's respect with.
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