I just remember sitting in Environmental Science class (3rd Period) and hearing sirens for majority of the class time. My teacher said, “what’s going on out there? You would think somebody just blew up a building” 5 Minutes later the security guard runs in and tells us that a plane crashed into the World Trade Center. We all ran down the hall to see (my high school was at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge and so we had a perfect view) Some of the teachers even took their classes to watch from the roof. It was crazy watching the buildings collapse. It didn’t really hit me until calculus and one of my classmates was crying because his dad worked in one building and his aunt in the other. After that I lost it! (They were both safe by the way)

Since my school was at the foot of the bridge we watched as people walked across covered in soot and some were bleeding. They came into our school for water. I pulled myself together and just tried to help in any way that I could. My best friend Erica and I went to the main office answered phones, when parents came to get their kids we located their children. I think we left school around 5:30 that evening and had to walk home because the trains were not in service.  What a way to start my senior year of high school!

After that moment everything changed! Not only as far as the security of the nation and the lives of millions of people, but simple things that I never appreciated before like my commute.   Streets that I used to walk down to get to school were blocked off and so that made my commute much longer. Military officers were stationed outside of the school to “man and protect” the Manhattan Bridge and everyone just became paranoid. It was more real for me walking past these men armed with their weapons every day.

This is definitely the abridged version of that day, but it is something that I will never forget. My prayers go out to everyone affected by the events that took place on September 11, 2001