September 11

It was one of those times you remember where you were and what you were doing. One of those times you will never forget. One of those times when you tear up by simply thinking about it, contemplating all the events around that day. All the emotions come flooding back. All the good, the bad, and the ugly.
I know I am writing this on September 10, but my home computer is not working, so I am writing this at school before I leave to go home. I am sure you understand that tomorrow I'll be too busy to write before the day is over. Indulge me for a bit.

Do you realize that the students I have this year were less than one year old in 2001? They have no memory of that day. It is up to us to teach them the importance of that tragic day in history. What will we teach them?

I always turn on the TV and watch the morning news. I heard the "Breaking News" announcement coming on and I stopped to hear what the big news happened to be. I sat at the bottom of my bed to watch as they showed the first tower with smoke billowing out. I listened to the news anchors try to describe what little they knew. Everyone was guessing on the cause and wondering just what was happening. As I watched, the camera was focusing on the towers. Suddenly you could see another plan flying nearby. I, really WE, watched it as it turned and headed toward the second tower! I remember placing my hand over my mouth and gasping. My thoughts were, "Who is making that big mistake?" I was thinking that the radar tower that directs the planes was making mistakes and sending the planes in the wrong directions. The news anchors were so horrified, speechless, and confounded. Words could not describe the emotions. I called to my husband to come in and watch. It was too horrific to even thing about what was happening.
I tried to get myself ready for school, to continue on with what had to happen. We turned on the TV in the living room so we could hear while we ate breakfast. By then I was thinking "Who is attacking us?" What is going on?
I don't remember exactly when the third plane hit the Pentagon. Was it after the collapse of the towers? My mind gets muddled up with the details.
I always felt upset at myself for not taking the time to call each of my children that morning. But they each called me, so we did touch base. I should have called them and let them know I was thinking of them, wanting them near while our world was falling apart. But I was just walking around, doing what I needed to do in survivor mode. I know I won't let that happen again if, heaven forbid, something like this happens again.
I knew I wouldn't turn on the TV in my classroom because I didn't want my students to be subjected to the horror of the day. But they came in with the knowledge of what happened. They were excited to talk about it, acting as all children do. It was pretty "neat" for them to watch the plane hit the building. They thought it was cool how the plane nearly came right through the tower. They just didn't have the background knowledge that there were real people in the building who no longer existed.
I remember running up to the faculty room after I got the students busy, hearing up-dates, going back to class for a few minutes, running back up. Not soon enough recess started and all the kids went outside to play. I raced back to the faculty room and joined the others as we watched the events again. We were watching as the first tower fell, speechless again. What horror, what anguish we felt. We cried and sobbed together, watching those people running away.
As the day progressed along and we tried to keep students busy, it was just a surreal feeling of doom, terror, and fright. What was happening in our world? By the end of the day, flags were flying everywhere. Our country was in turmoil, but we knew our country would survive and fight back. We knew we would show our strength, the strength of our people, joined in an unknown cause.
The TV didn't go off in our home for most of the night. We were glued to the events of the day.
As a famous author said "It was the best of times....(we joined together as a country, showing our true patriotic colors of red, what, and blue), it was the worst of times....... Pray that we don't have to experience any more terrorism on our own soil.