I left my friend’s house at 6:30 local time and headed to Wal-mart… I remember exactly what I bought (a cleaning kit for my new camera): that’s how much the minutiae of that day sticks in my memory. Right before I went into the store, I heard that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center… I hurried thru the store, and listened to the coverage on the radio as I went home.
Of course reports were sketchy at best at the beginning, and from what I heard it was a small plane. So I got to my mom’s house and turned on the 19inch TV. I stood in the middle of the room, looking at the North Tower on CNN, and thought..”No small plane could do that”.. about 20 seconds after I turned on the TV, I saw the 2nd plane approach from the side of the screen. I screamed “NO! NO!NO! NO! ” as it crashed into the second tower right before my eyes. My legs gave way beneath me and I sat on the floor, just staring up at the screen. I couldn’t tear my eyes away, even when they filled with tears and everything blurred as news of the Pentagon strike came across. I knew everything about our nation was changing at that moment.
About 30 minutes later, my mom woke up and came into the room. “What are you doing?” she asked
“Watching the end of the world as we know it.” I replied, my voice echoing in my ears.
We sat together and watched the towers fall, and the Pentagon burn and something solidified in my spirit that day. A burning pride in our country. When the government told the networks to stop replaying the footage, I decided that I would not do that.. and every week or so since 9/11, I watch the video captured that day, so that I will not forget. And I haven’t. I never will.