“I was in my fourth grade class during the events of Sept. 11. I mainly remember my teacher crying after getting a phone call with the news. I feel like everyone became super cautious, afraid and slightly more stereotypical.”

_—Nkiruka Omeronye, sophomore communications major from St. Paul, Minn._

“I was in sixth grade and it was a half day at school, so we were leaving early, and all the teachers started turning their televisions on. My brother and I got off the bus, and our neighbor came over to check on us and explain what happened in kid-friendly terms. I had never heard of the World Trade Centers, therefore I didn’t realize the significance of it all. I actually remember getting upset because it took over all the TV channels. The level of security has been heightened, and racial attitudes toward Middle Eastern citizens (have also). Everyone became weary and their outlook on other ethnicities has darkened.”

_—Jake Wandel, senior sociology major from St. Louis_

“My third grade teacher Mr. Pew answered the phone and his face just dropped. We were told to read our book quietly, but we could all tell something was wrong. The phone started ringing non-stop, all of my classmates started checking out early and it wasn’t until my music teacher broke the rules and told us ‘some bad people had done bad things.’ Later we found out a family friend of ours passed away in the towers, it just made everything realistic. Although security has changed, I still feel like there is room for improvement. 9/11 is one day in America that everyone comes together. It’s important to never forget what happened.”

_—Megan Schultz, freshman journalism major from Naples, Fla._

“I remember being at school and everyone started going home, but I didn’t understand why. My mom picked me up and began crying and calling all of our family members because she felt it was like the end of the world. I still had no idea what was going on until we reached home and I saw the TV. I think we have changed positively and negatively. Positively, New York as well as the whole country united, but negatively we have lost a lot of trust and many loved ones. It’s as if when the towers went down the country stood up as one.”

_—Crystal Villegas, freshman biology major from Chicago, Ill._

“I really don’t remember it super well. I remember being in my third grade
classroom, but I really didn’t understand what was going on and I knew
something bad had happened, but I was young and I wasn’t really affected by
it personally, so it didn’t really seem real to me. I was kind of outside of the
whole situation. People have gotten more patriotic, but obviously it scared people and a lot of times when people get scared they panic, and it can definitely create
problems with stereotyping because panic is never a positive thing.”

_—Ashley Wineland, freshman psychology and Spanish major from Blackwater_

“I was really confused because I was in school. I went to… a
Catholic school so we went to mass and said prayers. I feel like we are all a lot more scared because we saw what could happen, so we’re all a lot more on guard. I think the country is a lot closer together to protect it.”

_—Val McLennan, freshman art therapy major from Edwardsville, Ill._

“I remember we were watching the news in my kitchen I had come down for
breakfast and my whole family was gathered around the television in shock
and, going to school that day, I hadn’t realized it was such a huge deal. I was
in third grade at the time, so none of us really understood what a huge event
it was until we got to school and it was a big deal. At the time, it was scary but
I didn’t realize it was this big until more information came out. Honestly, even though it was a terrible tragedy I think it brought a lot of people together and created a lot of unity in our country, which is almost the silver lining in it. People have more respect for the firefighters and the army that fight terrorism and keeps our country safe. It has created a lot of respect for them which is great and it gave us a sad opportunity to all bond together.”

_—Alexa Tucker, freshman journalism major from Denver, Colo._

“I was really confused, I was scared for a long time afterwards. I was only
in third grade so I didn’t really know what was going on or why it had happened. I definitely think we’re stronger as a country. It’s hard to think about it, but I think we came together as a country after everything happened.”

_—Leanne Wilson, freshman nursing major from Roselle, Ill._

“I learned about it after school. They didn’t want to tell people during the day because they were worried that, since so many of us had parents who worked in the city or near the Twin Towers, it would freak them out. I was supposed to have an audition later that day in the city and it got cancelled, so that was how I found out that something was wrong. I also remember that the whole time we were walking back after getting picked up at school, people kept stopping my mom to ask if she had been talking to my dad because he worked in Brooklyn, right over the river, and he had basically seen everything. I was so confused about the audition because it was a really big thing and I was all prepared. But it was in the city, and also everything kind of stopped that day. My dad said when the first plane hit they went up to the roof and the second plane hit when they were up there watching to see what happened. He said that because he was on the river and it was so close, when the towers finally came down there were pieces of paper flying over to his building.”

_—Jen Lask, sophomore journalism major from Tarrytown, N.Y._

“My third grade teacher told us after recess. We all went inside and she explained to us what had happened and where New York City was. I remember actually thinking that it wasn’t that big of deal. I was really dislocated from it. As years went by I cared more and I understood more about it, but at the time it wasn’t something affecting me personally. I was never taught by my parents or my school to be concerned and I never felt that because of it my security was breached in any way or that my well-being was affected. I learned the significance of the event later. At the time I didn’t realize it would be so life changing, so historically important.”

_—Camille Hosman, freshman political science major from Ashland_

“I was getting ready for school and my mom was watching the news, and I started watching it with her. I guess since I was young, I knew it was really sad but it was hard to understand at the same time. I didn’t understand the importance of it. Since I’ve gotten older I’ve seen reruns of coverage and heard the stories of people each 9/11 I understand a lot more. It wasn’t only about the thousands of people and their families, it was a loss that was felt by all of us. The things I didn’t understand when I was young make sense now. But I feel like this is an important day and at Mizzou it feels like we are all a little disconnected because there was no attempt to bring the student body together, and I was surprised by that.”

_—Sarah Churchill, sophomore journalism major from Littleton, Colo._

“My fourth grade teacher was called out into the hallway and we thought maybe he had been fired, and he came back upset. But then he told us that something terrible had happened in New York and he turned on the news. We watched for a few minutes before there was an announcement that we weren’t to be watching TV. After that, anyone with parents who worked in the city got in line to call home, just to see if our parents were okay. I used to walk home with my sister and a neighbor, but we couldn’t find her and left without her. Her dad worked in New York and was missing for three days. But we went home and I started watching the news. My mom told us to go into the back yard and listen to how quiet it was because there were no planes, and then we went into the front yard and you could see smoke where you could usually see the skyline. Then we went back and watched the news. That day I realized I didn’t know anything about the world and became almost obsessed with the news. Immediately after that I started waking up a couple of hours before school to watch the news without my mom because she didn’t want me seeing it.”

_—Mary Taylor, sophomore social work major from Ridgewood, N.J._