Every year this day comes and I cry every time when I start hearing the radio call ins or see the documentaries. Chantz and I were watching a documentary on September 11th this past Wednesday and it just gets me every time. Even though I know exactly what happened it's like I learn something new each time I hear about it and it just brings all these emotions out of me. I still remember that day as if it was yesterday. I was in 8th grade and I had just gotten out of cheerleading practice. I was sitting in my mom's classroom with my friend Kayla P and we were talking as most teenage girls do and not paying attention to what was on the tv (all of our classrooms had these tvs in the upper corners of the room). My mom always had the news on every morning before classes started and this morning was no different. She had walked out of the room for a minute and when she came back in she went balistic and started yelling Angela what is going on what did the tv just say look at that the world trade center is on fire. We didn't hear what they had said nor did we really know what was going on. I remember my mom's face went white and she had this look in her eyes that made me realize it was something serious. My mom ran to tell our principle and he came on the announcements to tell everyone to put their tvs on the news. Throughout the rest of the day people were coming to pick their kids up from school even my step dad came to get my little brother from his school. Mom wanted me to stay with her since we were both at the same building and I kept asking her what is going on is there fixing to be a war in the United States?? I remember everyone was very scared that the Port Of Houston was going to be targeted because it's one of the biggest ports and so everyone in the city was leaving work and school to be with their families. That night my grandma called up to New York and we were told that my mom's cousin Bernard worked in the World Trade Center, the week before this had happened he got transferred to another office. My whole family is from New York and most of them still live there so it was very emotional for the few down here to know this had happened in the city they grew up in. My cousin that lives in New York was in elementary school at the time and he played baseball. My uncle told us that over half the kids on the team lost one of their parents either an employee that worked there or most of them were firefighters. We had already bought plane tickets to visit them for christmas this year and we were scared to death to fly especially to the city that had been attacked by the planes. I remember walking in the airports there were soliders everywhere with huge guns and the security was so extreme you had to be at the airport 2 1/2 hours before your flight left or you would miss it. When we got to New York my mom started crying because as we were flying in you could still see a cloud of dust and there were no more twin towers. My Uncle lives in northern New York but while I was there I got to go with my cousin to work in Manhattan. She took me by ground zero and I almost died. I couldn't stop the tears from just pouring out of my eyes. There were signs up everywhere with people still trying to find missing family members and it was still foggy and dusty and there was debris everywhere. It looked like a nightmare seeing it all in person rather than on the tv. One of my aunt's friends husband is a New York firefighter and she told us that she can't even hear the sound of bag pipes now without getting chills. She said the amount of funerals they went to in the following weeks was unbelievable. I receieved an email a little while ago about running late and it made me realize I will never be upset again if I am running late to work or school or a football game or anywhere. Some people's lives were saved because they were simply running late to work that day. The email said that one person's shoe strings didn't match so they had to stop to get new ones which delayed them and saved their life. It makes me think twice every time I say to myself "God why am I running late" maybe because there's a car accident that was going to happen and I'm not supposed to be involved in it or maybe I would've gotten a ticket instead of the person I end up passing who is pulled over. I know that God is always looking out for us and has our whole lives planned so now I will just appreciate running late.
Now is the day to celebrate all those who paid the ultimate price in this tragedy. My heart goes out to all those families who lost loved ones during this disaster, to all the firefighters, police officers, emergency crews, employees and everyone who was just trying to do their job, and to all the military members who are serving or have served our country we appreciate everything you do.
Now is the day to celebrate all those who paid the ultimate price in this tragedy. My heart goes out to all those families who lost loved ones during this disaster, to all the firefighters, police officers, emergency crews, employees and everyone who was just trying to do their job, and to all the military members who are serving or have served our country we appreciate everything you do.
