On September 11, 2001…

It was just another day, or so we thought. My Mom packed my lunch and sent me on my way to school. My Dad was long off to work. However, the skies had different intentions.

8:46am…

We were sixteen minutes into an average day in Mrs. Mahoney’s kindergarten class when a hijacked plane hits the north tower at the World Trade Center approximately an hour away from my place of learning… was hit. All people on that flight as well as floors ninety three through ninety six were immediately killed.

8:50am…

My class is reading a story but at the same time George W. Bush is reading a story to children in Florida. He is abruptly notified that the World Trade Center had been hit. Both the fire and police departments have been dispatched and the towers begin to evacuate.

9:03am…

We’ve wrapped up our story and have moved on to centers, but another plane has moved on to crashing into floors seventy five through eighty five of the south tower. This stunt kills all aboard the plane as well as hundreds of people inside the south tower.

9:31am…

While all of our classroom doors are shut and we are minding our own business, President George W. Bush publicly proclaims from Florida that these attacks on the World Trade Center an “apparent terrorist attack on our country.” All bridges and tunnels into and out of New York City are closed and all flights heading New York’s way have been terminated.

9:37am…

While my mother begins to panic and cry that her family is not home, and people in the city just one hour away are running for their lives, another hijacked plane hits the Pentagon in Washington DC. Fifty nine passengers aboard the plane plus 125 military and civilian personnel were killed.

9:42am…

My Mom is frantically trying to get me from school but is unable to because my school is on lockdown. My Dad’s job is on lockdown, no one should be travelling. For the first time in history, the Federal Aviation Association demands all planes to land at an airport at their closest convenience and quickly.

9:59am…

Teachers and administration at my school are beginning to panic, and we are doing everything in our power as students to occupy ourselves. The entire state of New York is completely chaotic, and running bystanders of these attacks shriek as the south tower comes crashing to the ground.

10:07am…

My family is trying to stay in contact with each other to ensure we are all safe and sound on Long Island. In the sky, passengers on a hijacked plane contact their families and plot a takeover of the aircraft. Sensing their tactics, the hijackers purposely crash the plane in a field in Pennsylvania… killing everyone on board.

10:28am…

My Mom is sitting in front of the TV screen, monitoring every move during these moments of the attacks. She looks up at the TV screen, and many people look up at the north tower in the city as it begins its final descent.

2:51pm…

My entire family wasn’t “safely” home in New York. My grandparents were aboard a cruise ship during all of this. While they were stranded in the middle of the ocean because ports were closed, the US Navy dispatches missile destroyers to New York and Washington DC.

5:20pm…

The initial attacks had subsided and I was able to get home from school. I sat with my Mom on the couch watching the news reporters reiterating and discussing that morning’s attacks. This is the moment that the forty seven story World Trade Center collapses after burning for hours. No casualties occurred during this burning, but the collapse spread debris that forced rescue workers to run and fight for their lives.

6:58pm…

My parents and I were sitting at the table eating dinner together, feeling thankful we were simply all together. George W. Bush reunites with the White House and was able to make it there safely.

8:30pm…

As a kindergartner, it was bed time. For our nation, however, this is when George W. Bush addresses our nation and how we will all “stand together in the war against terrorism.”

Everyone woke up that morning thinking they were going to just go to work and go to school. Who would’ve thought that these very people would have to attempt to outrun the dust storm due to towers crashing? Who thought they would be standing at a window of the north tower deciding whether to flag down help or jump sixty stories to the ground, knowing either way they were going to die? Did anyone think military personnel were going to have to evacuate children from the Pentagon and create a little play pen in the street with their bodies and cribs so that children don’t run away? Who would’ve thought that terrorists were going to take over planes with the intention of destroying some of the most important landmarks our country has to offer?

And we all thought that it was going to be just another day…