Just like many people my age, I can remember exactly where I was when I heard/saw the news of that day ... It was an early Tuesday morning and I was in ninth grade biology class. We were in the middle of some random experiment dealing with dirt and bugs and other gross things that I did not want to deal with at that hour of the morning, when all of a sudden the TV in the classroom turned on (as did the rest in school as I would find out) and I saw smoke escaping the North Tower. At first, I think we all thought it was a movie ... but after a few minutes we realized the reality of it when teachers came rushing by asking for the TVs to be shut off ... But it was too late. We had already seen too much.
Growing up less than an hour from New York meant that many of our parents worked in and around the towers, including my father. He was actually heading into the city that day when he heard what had happened on the radio. He was turned around and sent back in the other direction when he got to a certain point. Many of my friends began to get calls from their parents checking in. A lot of students were picked up from school ... Some students had no idea what was going on.
Looking back on that day, I don't know if I could have predicted how the world would have changed in ten years. I think we have seen the best and the worst in people, in events, in everything.
Directly after the attacks, we saw people come out in droves to help with the recovery efforts but we also saw heinous hate crimes being committed against Muslims and Sikhs and Hindus (and Atheists and Christians and Jews who just looked like them). We have seen vigils held in honor of those killed in the attacks on our soil, but then we entered into wars with several countries and thousands of innocents lives - both American and foreign - have been lost in the process. Droughts and famine have taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of children in the Horn of Africa but people now know about the problems facing many of the regions in Africa, and are reaching out a helping hand.
Ten years later, the New York skyline may still look empty without the Towers hovering high in the sky but the world is still changing and will continue to change - I can only hope for the better.
You can take everything I have. You can break everything I am. Like I'm made of glass, like I'm made of paper. Go on and try to tear me down, I will be rising from the ground. Like a skyscraper. Like a skyscraper! (Skyscraper, Demi Lovato)
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