This year is the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Honestly I can’t believe how long it has been since that fateful day. To this day, I still remember what I saw on TV and the fear it left me as a child. On this week’s post, I want to share my memories of that morning.
I grew up in California so everything was already in chaos when I woke up for school. At the time, we were living in a small two bedroom apartment and I remember walking into the living room and seeing my dad standing in front of the TV. I was a 10 year old 5th grader when this happened. My mom was in the bathroom brushing her teeth. I stood by my dad and on TV I remember seeing one of the towers with smoke coming out of it. The news anchor had mentioned that a plane had hit it. I think at the time, my dad thought it was an accident. But as my dad and I continued to watch the live footage, we see another plane hit the other tower. I remember my dad scream in shock when we saw it happen live and my mom running out of the bathroom when my dad screamed. I wasn’t really processing what had just happened, but that image of the plane coming in burned in my brain.
After that, it became a blur because news reports of other crashes were happening and I couldn’t keep up as to what was going on. Plus I also had to get ready for school so I couldn’t stay in front of the TV. When I was done getting ready, I went back to the TV and watched with my dad again. And then we saw one of the towers fall. Live. My dad stood up and yelled again when that happened. I didn’t realize that there were people still in that building. It never occurred to me being so young. I don’t remember seeing the second tower fall.
Regardless, my dad took me to school. There was a weird heaviness in the air despite all of us being kids. I was in line with my classmates and I asked a couple of them if they saw what happened. A few did but I remember one of classmates who didn’t see the news and was confused. When it was class time, we went into the classroom and I noticed that the room was emptier than usual. My teacher was just sitting at her desk looking very solemn. She asked us if we had seen what happened on the news this morning. Majority of my classmates and I raised our hands. She explained to us that we had been attacked by terrorist. To many of us, that probably went over our heads. Some of my classmates started crying. As an adult now, I can’t imagine how to tell a bunch of 10 year old what was happening.
I can’t remember much after that. The rest of the day was a blur but I do remember my teacher had the news on the TV during breaks so when we came back from lunch, we saw she still had it on and turned it off when we came in.
The news during the next few days covered the attacks and I kept seeing the towers on fire, watching them fall multiple times, and seeing the planes hit. Then I remember the US army bombing another country and how scared I was. I thought they’d be attacking us again. Over the course of a few years, I was really scared of loud noises. The area I grew up in always had helicopters always flying by. Every time a helicopter or plane flew overhead, I ran to the window to make sure it was coming towards us. When the gardeners ran the lawnmower, I got really scared if I didn’t see it because I used to think it was a plane. There was a nightmare I kept having of me being in my elementary school and running out to see two planes crashing into each other in the sky.
Even though I was kid and that I didn’t fully understand what was happening at the time, I didn’t realize how much seeing all of it impacted me on a mental standpoint. Twenty years later, I still remember this and I hope to never forget.
Hope you enjoyed this read and I will see you all next week.
