September 11th, 2001 started out as a normal school day when I was in the second grade. I got up, got ready for school, ate breakfast and watched WGN News, and went to school. I had about two classes. Then, in the middle of English class, the principal announced “Hello, I just wanted to announce that a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City. We will cut classes and watch the news instead.” My classroom didn’t have a TV set, so my teacher called her husband, who was a police officer, to bring the TV from their kitchen to the classroom. We sat there, watching. I remember at first I didn’t know what this “World Trade Center” was until I saw the frightening image on the TV screen. It was the Twin Towers, buildings I had visited a few years before and had gotten pictures of. I was watching with my class for a few minutes, when the second plane crashed. The kids gasped, the teacher was getting tears in her eyes, and I was just scared. Scared for my family, even though I’m in Chicago. After the buildings collapsed, my teacher was crying (for all the people who had died), and my classmates and I were speechless. I then got the news that the Pentagon was hit. I remember walking home that day, and fighter jets were zooming over my head. My house is under the flight path, and I heard nothing that day but fighter jets and helicopters. My fear grew when I had a horrible thought. I was then afraid they would crash planes into the Sears Tower and Navy Pier. The Sears Tower is the tallest building in America, and was then the tallest building in the world, so it’s a popular landmark. I was scared of them hitting Navy Pier because my father works there and at the time my brother worked there, and I love them very much. They said that the place was evacuated, and I was hearing some rumors from my classmates’ parents, so it scared me a bit.

Another thing, my father was supposed to go to the World Trade Center hotel, which is right underneath the twin towers, on that day, doing some presentation, and to meet an old freind of his who worked at the Windows of the World resturant. His trip, however, was cancelled. It simply wasn’t his time to go. However, his freind he was supposed to meet passed away that day.

Anyway, God Bless America, and have a good day.