I am a 16 year old girl living in the Gulf of Texas, but what happened on Wednesday, September 11, 2001 at 8:43 a.m. changed the rest of my life dramatically. But first you need to understand what happened that day from a Kindergarten student, living on Long Island, New York, 40 miles from the devastation.
At 8:20 in the morning school had just began and being five years old we were singing our typical morning songs. My mom had walked me the 1/2 a mile down suburban NY, to my school for Pre-K and Kindergarten. At somewhere around 9, the principal got on the P.A.System in her “trying-not-to-panic-but-failing-at-it” voice and exclaims,
“Excuse me teachers and students, no need for alarm but we have been issued under a urgent lockdown so please teachers, hang your black paper on the windows and students remain as quiet as possible. No teacher is allowed to turn on their televisions at any time during the day. I will be back on for further directions if needed. Thank you!”
Let me put it in the way we took it… “What?” I was five, several of those words had never been an important part of my life. I was a bright girl and knew my letters so, I wrote down the words so I could ask my mom what they meant because, evidently my teacher kind of started panicking. Soon, more and more students were dismissed from class, regardless of the state-wide message, “Parents are to NOT pick up any grade level student”. My mom being the only rule follower, listened. I was the only one in class with my nervous teacher. I sat and colored until 1:30 when my mom drove to my school and picked me up at dismissal. My little brother, too young to be in school yet, was in the car and I plopped into my booster seat and started telling my mom all the strange things that had happened at school this unordinary day. My mom was pale. She did not look like her normal, smiling self. The news was on the radio. I looked at Dillon (My three year old brother) and asked him what was the matter.
“The air-pains got hurt” he said in his long island, baby talk, accent.
I was lost. So, what? Well, I learned what it meant by my eight year old brother. And soon, I realized my dad was supposed to back from his business trip in New Jersey. Well, he wasn’t. His pager was dead, and we had no way of reaching him. Not surprisingly, my mother was terrified.
Well, I could go on into much more detail but basically, The city wouldn’t let anyone but emergency vehicles in, my dad was stuck in his car, in New Jersey, for two days. But thank God, he made it home. My friends’ families were not quite as lucky. Several of my friends lost dads, moms, aunts, uncles, and grandparents in the Trade Center Tragedy. My parents decided they no longer liked New York and moved us home to Texas a year later, here where I still am.
Being in New York was different than being in Texas. Very few of the kids my age here understand the loss we suffered. They don’t understand what it was like to be SO close to the biggest devastation to happen to America since we were born. They don’t know what it’s like to have friends missing for weeks due to family mourning. To see your teacher cry. To go to a place you used to go to to take a picture with, then one day it’s just gone. To be rubble in the street. To know people were burned, crushed, and suffocated to death because of several hateful people. But, I do. I still have nightmares of that day. I still cry every year. I still remember that day though it happened only a few days ago. It is probably my most memorable day.
So, how did I change? My world was flipped at 8:43 a.m. September 11, 2001. It is a day I choose to not let escape my memory but instead hold it, to share, because one day it will be long forgotten, and I want my grand children to know what happened that devastating day. I wake up every day thanking God that my parents are both well, that I am still alive, and that the impact of 9/11 did not effect me the way it could have, either way more or much less. Because, 9/11 taught me that peace is a battle you have to gain, but it is MUCH better to have peace than it is to have hate.
-Devin Spence