I was a senior in high school and my best friend Hali and I had French class together for 1st period. We both walked into class super early (before our teacher was even there), looked at each other and walked out. We had decided to go grab breakfast burritos and take a tardy pass for class. Hali also wanted to stop by her house and change clothes. We honestly thought we'd only be gone 20 minutes.
When we got to her house, her mom was still there which was very strange because usually she'd be at work. We knew if she saw me, she'd know Hali wasn't just changing clothes and that we were actually kinda skipping class. So I had to hide in Hali's closet while she talked to her mom. At some point their little Yorkie puppy started yapping and I had to pick her up so she wouldn't give me away! Do you have a funny visual? Me, hiding in this little closet holding this tiny fur ball. I could hear that her mom's voice sounded panicked and that something was definitely not right. After what seemed like forever, her mom left for work and I came out of my hiding spot. It was then that my little 17 year old world changed.
"A plane flew into the Twin Towers."
As soon as the words were out of Hali's mouth I knew that this moment would be something I'd remember forever. We raced back to school and spent the next hour and a half sitting with our theatre teacher and watching all of the footage and the news reports. Actually, we probably spent the rest of the day watching it. Every teacher seemed to have the news on in their classroom.
I was too young and selfish at the time to really understand the impact that this would have on the world going forward but I do remember being so frightened. This was the first time (that I was aware of) that America had been attacked. We had always studied about different wars but they just didn't feel all that real to me because they weren't in my backyard. I remember being so scared that what was happening in other parts of the country was about to happen in the US. I had never felt unsafe in America before.
The summer before my Sophomore year of high school, I was lucky enough to go to New York. I got to see the Twin Towers in person and have pictures of them somewhere in a scrapbook. It is still so surreal to think that they're not there anymore. It is also surreal to think that one day I'll have to explain the significance of September 11th to my kids and grandkids just like my grandparents had to explain historical dates to me.
Hali and I never got our breakfast burritos that day and we actually ended up getting detention for 2 days because technically we never made it back to our French class. It's safe to say that neither one of us was phased by either occurrence in light of the situation.
I remember where I was September 11, 2011. Do you?
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