On the 10th anniversary of 9/11, a student remembers horror, sees hope

I was in school when we were all called into our homerooms. The principal came on the loudspeaker, trying to explain what had happened without terrifying the students. School was canceled for the rest of the day, because…something had happened.

I was ecstatic. School, which had only started five days ago, was already giving us free time off? Amazing! I lived two blocks from the school and ran home. I expected a few extra hours of watching TV and no parents to boss me around! This Tuesday was going to be amazing.

The walk home was fun, almost laughable. I remember spotting a helicopter overhead, pointing, and giggling. Everyone seemed so tense, but how could they? We were getting an early release, fantastic!

Except…my parents were home. They were in the living room, staring at the screen. They jumped up at the sound of the door opening, and I could see tears in my mother's eyes. And instead of the cartoons I expected, I watched as planes crashed into two towers in New York.

I didn't cry. I didn't scream. At first, I thought mom was watching a movie. But they showed the footage again, a third time, a fourth…

After the fifth time the planes crashed, I just turned to my mother and asked, "Mom, is this real?"

"Yes, son. Yes it is."

I was eleven years old.

Ten years since 9/11. Almost all of my life I remember has been in the wake of this tragedy. It is hard to even consider a world without the policies or the anguish that came on that Tuesday. It is something that I have come to accept, and even expect. The idea that a man can board a flight, or a bus, or even just walk out into a crowded street and just blow himself up, is no longer the realm of fiction, but a distinct terrorist possibility that needs to be addressed. We live in constant fear of this world and try desperately to change this new fact.

This fear that we now embody has caused America to commit terrible acts in retribution. Racism against men and women of Middle Eastern descent is common, and at times even accepted in ‘polite society'. Torture, or ‘enhanced interrogation' was a common event for years, destroying the lives and psyches of hundreds of men simply because they were the wrong color, or spoke with an accent, or had views that the government didn't like. Since 9/11, fear and hatred are necessities for the country.

In writing this piece, I have searched for answers of what has changed for the better since 9/11.

Not on merely a technological stance, but socially and politically. How have Americans improved since this tragedy?　

I soon found more answers than I could count. The unity of a country behind its president as a nation declared that America was not beaten into submission. The outrage at such acts of torture committed in the name of the American public that Americans called for the dissolution of such prisons as Guantanamo Bay.

The elimination of tyrannical regimes across the globe with the support of U.S. troops and aid, the rebellion in Libya and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein being two prime examples. Americans have shown that we are growing as a nation, not as the world's police, but aid to those struggling just to live their lives.

What would life had been like, if 9/11 had not happened? It is a question that can never be answered, and at times should not even be considered. I wish that these men were caught before they had boarded the planes. I wish that almost 3,000 people that lost their lives were now living at home, unaware of the tragedies that might have been. But these wishes mean nothing, and do nothing to aid those still living.

In ending this, I would like to say a prayer. A prayer for the families that lost their loved ones ten years ago. A prayer for America to heal, to grow, and to love as a nation. A prayer to God, or whoever you shall believe in, to protect us all in the coming days, and to give us strength to carry on into an uncertain future. With wisdom, love and guidance, may we bring a brighter future to the world. God Bless the United States of America.