I'm not normally a mushy or personal sharer however, this year I felt I was ready to share my 9/11 story.
Can you believe it has been 11 years since 9/11? It is hard to believe that that so much time has passed. I remember this day as if it was yesterday, I was wearing a pink three quarter length shirt with jeans, a brown side backpack, and I had the original Nokia Cell Phone with a black/fuchsia cover. This was before color screen phones. I will never ever forget that phone as I tried to dial my family for hours. I have never shared this story with anyone.
I was a sophomore in high school in my Student Government class, the overachiever that I am was the President of my class, which meant I was in this class and of course, loved it. My teacher puts the TV on and tells everyone to sit down. Around 9:45AM we finally get word that the Pentagon has been hit. The shock that ran through my body was like no other, living in Washington DC, having a military father, and so many friends with military parents, we all just looked at each other. "The west side was hit, doesn't your dad work there?" That Nokia Cell Phone that I had just gotten at the beginning of the school year, was out and I was trying to call my dad and mom. HOURS went by without being able to get in touch with either of them and wondering what on earth was going on. Students were told to proceed with their day and teacher to turn off the TVs we don't want to scare the students. Well, we were beyond scared, we wanted to make sure our families were okay.
I couldn't tell you what my mother was wearing or the drive home from school, but I can remember running to her like I was a four year old getting pick up from the first day of preschool. I cried and cried because I was so happy to see her. She immediately took me from the school and we went home. She had not heard from my dad and knew the traffic was so bad that we couldn't go toward the Pentagon or DC to try to find him. So we played the waiting game with the television on of course, watching and waiting. Seeing footage like that of the one below.
After returning home my mother informed me that my father was supposed to be on Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon but because of car trouble, missed his flight and had taken another flight out to Los Angeles. Once he found out about the attacks the military man in him wanted to get home but of course no flights were available. So he searched for a rental car, which was extremely hard to come by as well. He drove all the way home, staying with family in the mid-west to get back to us and come back to "kick butt and take names" but used slightly different language if you know what I mean. I am lucky to still have my father here today. Many of his co-workers, my friend's parents are not so lucky as they were in the Pentagon that day.
A man from my church was severely burned in the fire, you can read his story, link below. Very moving story, even if you aren't religious.
http://www.facethefire.org/
Every year I watch President George W. Bush's speech that he said that day. I posted a link to it below. It moves me every year. What a country we are.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMiqEUBux3o&noredirect=1
As you can tell, this event is one of many that defines my life and who I am. I truly believe that my positive outlook on life and want/need to live every day to the fullest is because of these type of experiences. They mold you and make you who you are. You might ask how I am bringing this back to teaching - it is our duty to make sure this day is never forgotten and we learn from the mistakes in our history so they are never repeated. We aren't just subject matter experts anymore, it is also our job to teach character, to be a good and kind person, a forgiving person, who doesn't let tragedy define us.
Until next time...
OH Miss Teacher <3
ohmissteacher@gmail.com
