I was in 10th grade and my first period was history. At that school, we didn't have an automated bell system, so we had to wait for the administrative assistant press the bell button. Our teacher finished the lesson for the day and we were doing homework for the day. After a while, the teacher got chatty and started talking to about her family. An hour passed, and we were all getting antsy. She sent Casey, a blonde girl sat on my right, to see what was going on. A few seconds later, Casey runs back, pale, motioning all of us to follow her. We went into the main room in the middle of the school where a TV had been plugged , around which half the school sat in metal folding chairs. We found some and watched. It was after the first plane but before the second. one spoke for two hours. Gradually, other classes joined us until the whole school was in that room. We sat there, watching as the World Trade Center fell and so many people died. of the students said anything, did anything. We sat there in shock, not really believing this could happen. Some of teachers were crying. We stopped watching some point and started calling parents to pick us up.

After that, it felt as every news channel was watching the rubble move, by stone. We weren't shown many crying faces because we were supposed to be strong, so of focusing on the grieving families, the cameras zoomed in on the faces of dogged determination. People started wearing shirts that ‘I (heart) NY.’ I hate those shirts. Whenever I see them, their hypocrisy me cringe and I just want to stop the person and ask them if they've ever been NY and, if not, why do they wear that shirt? That was about when I first heard the phrase ‘War on Terror.’ Bush said some idiotic things in his day, but wars are fought by people, against people. Not concepts. The war on terror means turning on the light for your three-year-old baby girl because she's of the dark, not sending people into Iraq or Afghanistan.

Article written by Kelly Sessions