September 11, 2001.

This day will always bring back a certain feeling that I have never experienced before. My day was going like any other school day, lame and pretty boring. As I entered my second block class, I sat down at my desk looking forward to lunch, which unfortunately wasn’t for another two and a half hours. My teacher began his lesson, but was interrupted by an alarming message that popped up on the computer screen. It was about 9:15 when it read, “Plane Crashes Into World Trade Center. “  Honestly, I didn’t think much of it at first, because I wasn’t aware of how badly this was going to affect our country.

I decided to take a walk to the bathroom, just to collect my thoughts and the emotions running through my brain. As I walked down the hallway, I noticed something very astonishing. It wasn’t that every student in every classroom had their head up, but they were all staring at the same picture on the television screen in shock. What they were looking at wasn’t the weather or a sports update, but one of the biggest buildings in New York City burning, and the lives of many Americans disappearing in the worst way possible.  

I went back to class. By that time, my friend had informed me that airplanes had also hit— not one tower, but both towers— at the World Trade Center along with the Pentagon. That’s when it hit me. It occurred to me that this wasn’t an accident, but an attack that no one saw coming. 

Ever since that moment, my thoughts about America have changed. As the week went on, the faces of Americans, especially, were only faces of sadness and anger. I can just remember watching the television and seeing people running for their lives, the terror in their eyes, and the debris clouding all over lower Manhattan. 

This act of hatred I believe was a wake up call for the United States. Sometimes the tragedies we see are only facts not recognized in time. The anger from Afghanistan was unbelievably expressed in a manner that no one predicted. The more I have seen of that country, the more I have grown to love my own. 

I hope that our country does not go to war. I believe that war cannot change the beliefs of other countries; it will only make the anger stronger.  I think the most important issue right now is respect.  We as individuals, including the countries that disagree with our ways of life, need to learn to respect that we are all human and different. If our government will stay strong, America will stay strong. When you see our neighbors with the American flag outside their doors and everywhere we look, it is always a good sign that we are together in all this chaos, we are standing strong and we will make it through as one.  

The eyes of anger of the people who hate have taken the lives of the people whose faces were once those of happiness. I believe that everyone involved, such as the victims killed and the helping hands, will always be known as heroes in the eyes of the nation. It took many lives, but the rest of us who have experienced the pain will survive in the end.  A great deal of shock and tears have fallen upon us, if there’s one thing that America really stands for, that is freedom.

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Erin Haggerty is a high school junior. Comments to Erin may be emailed to editor@ofspirit.com