I was living in Los Angeles at the time, and I was in the fourth grade…so I was about 10 years old. September 12 (She was turning thirteen) is my sister’s birthday, so our house was decorated with birthday preparation things.
I remember waking up that morning to my mother screaming my sister and I to get up, that something was wrong and Daddy can’t take us to school. She pointed to the TV screen, and my sister and I just looked at each other like “what…?” and my mom started crying, while I was just so confused.
My father is a cop, and he had been called to stand guard on the Golden Gate Bridge (which was about four hours from our house) and my mom’s work had called and said that she didn’t have to come to work…so she took my sister and I to school, only my sister went to a private school and I went to public. I got into class that day and my teacher had been crying (her cousin was in the building…sadly, he died, but she didn’t know at the time). She made us get out our maps to show us where New York is, and then she led us in prayer. One boy tried to sound “smart” (or so he thought) by saying it wasn’t politically correct and all this shit, and my teacher just cried even harder, which made everyone get mad at him. We never heard any complaints after that.
Our school was supposed to elect class officials that day, but it was postponed for a month. My sister didn’t really have a birthday because my dad spent a long time in San Fran just standing on the bridge.
At the time, I didn’t realize how horrible it was, I was so young and confused. Even though I don’t know anyone who actually died, I am very patriotic and it is very hard for me to hold back tears.
But one thing about this that truly amazes me is how willing citizens of America were willing to put aside their differences to defend our country and pray together. It showed how amazing and unified our country really is.

God Bless America and Americans. 🙂