September 11, 2001 started out as a normal school day for me. I rode the bus to school and when I got to homeroom I put my coat and book bag on my coat hook in the back of the room. We started our morning classes and everything was going well.

During English class the office announced that a plane had gone down near Shanksville, which is about 15 minutes from the school. The first thought to enter my mind was "Is my Dad okay?"

My dad works at Highland Tank which is very close to the crash site. Parents started coming in to pick up their children. My sister and I met by the office to wait for someone to come get us. We were both very nervous and sat at a table where we both tapped our fingernails like a young girl before her very first date.

About an hour later our dad came and took us straight home. We all sat in the living room and watched the news. It was then when I found out about the other terrorist attempts and when I found out how close the plane was to my Dad.

After we all calmed down he told us that he was outside on his break and the plane flew over him. He knew something was wrong, then he heard the crash. He said it was like a giant "boom" sound with an echo. To this day I will never forget that day and the people who lost their lives. I can't imagine what their families' went through and the nightmares they must still have today.

I was in fifth grade at a Catholic Middle School when September 11 occured. Sadly one of the things that I will always remember about it was not knowing at all. Throughout the entire day the teachers seemed to be somewhere else than where they should have been. It was evident from the tension in the air that something was wrong, something very very wrong.
It became even more obvious when we were at church, and all of the sudden all of the teachers left to go to the back of the church. However, it wasn't until I got home that my dad ordered me to sit down on the couch and listen. He told me that America was under attack, but I didn't quite understand until I looked at the television and saw the footage. I was shocked more so than I have ever been in my life. However, that wasn't my only emotion that day. Another one was anger. Anger tha the event happened to begin with, but also because I was never told. As a person don't I have a right to know what is going on in the world around me?
I feel fortune, too, to get another perspective on the event. I have a very good friend by the name of Mike that happens to hve traveled everywhere there is to travel basically. However, listening to him listen to the horrible event that happened here in America you would have thought that he was an American. When it happened he had been in Austrailia, and this is a quote form him.
"People in other countries view America as being invincible, so when I saw the footage, I was shocked. If something like this could happen to America then what is the world coming to?"
Before this I never quite ocnsidered its affects on other countries. Mike brought me to the realization that other countries care and took it maybe harder than we did. I can only say that the affects were world wide. I don't want to be cliche by stating that it brought people together, but in a way it truly did. However, this isn't kept to just America, but the world. Remember this forever.