I won't say that I lost a family member or anything of the sort, but this day changed my life so early on that I can't imagine what my life would be like.
Most of my friends, who were in first grade when this happened, don't remember what happened. Some don't remember why we had been sent home from school that day. I'll never forget. New Yorkers became so close and treated each other with kindness during this tragedy.
In the village of Croton-on-Hudson, our dam feeds into the New York City water supply. Once people began thinking this was an attack, my father went to the school to make sure they turned off the water since it could've been tainted. But, I wouldn't be told that for a few years.
My grandma lived only a few minutes away from my elementary school. When I was sent home, that's where my mother and I went. They kept replaying the first plane hitting the towers. When I told my mom another tower got hit, she told me it was just another replay until I finally got her to come to the television. There was so much pain in that room and at the time I didn't understand it in the slightest. My dad ended up going down to the city with other people in our community that day to help out. He wasn't a 'responder' but he wanted to do what he could. He was supposed to be there that day but went in a day early for whatever reason to complete his work.
Living so close to Manhattan, all the teachers assumed that we had exhausted all the information about the September 11th attacks. In reality, we had all been sheltered from it. We had lost people from our community and most didn't want to share the pain with the children. My freshman year of college, the history teacher decided to open our eyes to what had happened on our doorstep. It was the first time many of us had seen the news clips of the attacks since we were children. I hadn't realized until that day just how horrific that event really was and it was clear by the faces in the classroom that I wasn't the only one.
Two years later, I found myself in trade school studying Law Enforcement. We ended up spending an extended period of time learning about 9/11 and the conspiracies that people had about it as well. While there are people who stand strongly on either side, I'm thankful that my teacher gave us all the information so that we could make the decision for ourselves.
Throughout most of my time in high school, I participated in a police cadet program through my town. When the freedom tower went up, we all took a trip down together to go on a self-guided tour. The architects did such a great job creating the fountains, it was so beautiful. Many of us just stood there taking in just how surreal it was being there and how much pain was there. There were some kids, as expected, who decided to just fool around as families were mourning but they were put under control quickly.
I didn't spend too much time in my high school towards the end of my time there. My September of senior year, though, the students were so angry. Every year there would be a moment of silence to signify when the first tower was hit, but that didn't happen that year. This community has always been very small and we lost people in our community that day. The students were not having it. The next morning, dozens of students skipped their first-period class to fill up the main office until they apologized for ignoring this and promised to not disregard it again.
At the end of my senior year of high school, I contacted two close friends and we ended up walking the 5k that ended at the freedom tower and benefitted those affected by the attacks. There were so many people and I just remember thinking just how beautiful it truly was.
I ended up writing my personal essay for college about my experience with September 11th, as it will always hold an extraordinary amount of importance in my heart and pushed me into wanting to work in the criminal justice field.
I am happy to say that I am a junior in college and still pursuing criminal justice. I do this in the hopes to prevent anything like this happening on American soil again. While I am still young, there is plenty I can still do.
