School had just started a few days ago. I remember celebrating my sister’s birthday the night before. I went to school and were still getting used to a new school year. I particularly remember my science class and the papers that my teacher handed out. It was a blue paper about the class safety instructions. I remember writing the date on the paper. “9/11/01”. Science was my second period of the day and I believe it was around the time that the attacks had started. The day went on and students were being picked up from school every five or ten minutes; the phones in the classrooms kept ringing to make the announcements of students being picked up early. I remember walking in the hallway and seeing a crowd of parents in the front of the school. There were many rumors about what had happened. There was one rumor that a plane had crashed onto a major highway and many parents were stuck. There was another rumor that a missile hit New York City. The teachers told us nothing and refused to turn on the televisions in the classrooms.
It was finally time to go home and we got on our buses. I knew that I didn’t have to make sure my sister got on the bus because she was sick that day and stayed home from school. Teachers were on the bus sitting in the front rows, which was unusual, because that never happened. They took attendance (again, it was unsusual) and then we were on our way home. We had to stop in front of every student’s house, instead of leaving them at the designated bus stop. I guess they wanted to make sure we got to our homes safely. We eventually arrived at my street, and the bus driver dropped me off at the usual bus stop where the parents waited in their cars. I remember getting into the car and asking, “What happened?”. My mom and sister were sitting in the front and they told me that the Twin Towers had collapsed and that a plane flew into the Pentagon. For some odd reason, I confused the Pentagon with the Washington Monument.
Our neighbor and her daughter came up to our car and started talking to us. The daughter had informed us about what happened at the high school she was attending and how some students’ parents both worked in the World Trade Center. We eventually went home and I remeber watching the news and seeing the images of the events that unfolded earlier in the day. I specifically remember news video of baby carriages abandoned on the sidewalk. I don’t remember much after that but I do remember watching Bush’s Address to the Nation. I also remember listening to 1010 WINS on the radio.
I didn’t go to school the next day because we wanted to see my dad come home from the city (He stayed in a hotel in the city, just to be safe). He came home and was fine and life went on.
That is my story of where I was on 9/11.
I was 11 years old and I will never forget.
-MP New Jersey