I was in my fourth grade science class at my Catholic elementary school, and our teacher, Sister Catherine, wouldn’t tell us exactly what had happened at first, just that something terrible had happened in New York. We had a prayer service later that morning, and most of the students went up to the podium with their own petitions. I didn’t go, though. I didn’t know what to say.
Recess was canceled, and I was pretty disappointed because it was a beautiful day. Throughout the day, kids kept getting picked up by their parents, and eventually I was too, though I didn’t see the point in going home since a small Pennsylvania parochial school wasn’t exactly a big target. We had just moved to a new house, so our television set was just sitting on our kitchen table, and once I got home I watched the footage of the attack for the first time with my dad.
What I most remember, though, is just not really getting it. I was just barely nine years old. I was of course saddened that there were so many people killed and surprised that such a thing could happen in America, but it still seemed to me like New York was just another far away place where bad things happened. I didn’t know anyone who lived in New York, I’d never been there and it just seemed really distant, even though it was only a seven hour drive away. It wasn’t until later, I believe, that I really got a grasp on the situation and realized the magnitude of what had happened.
With the 10th anniversary upon us, I, like many others, have gotten a bit pensive. Have we really recovered? Will we ever recover? Was our reaction the right one? Have we gotten in too deep in the “war on terror”? Have we done too much to fight, or not enough? What has this done to the way the world sees us? To the way we see ourselves? I find it difficult to answer these questions, because I barely remember what it was like to live before the attacks. My entire life has been colored by the shadow of Sept. 11, and I struggle to imagine a world where it hadn’t happened. The attacks changed America and made her into what she is today, and they changed me too.