Ten Years Ago, Today
I was in the 10th grade. The morning started off as any other, with my morning bike to school. My first class was Spanish. There were rumors of confused news reports about a small plane accidentally glancing off of the World Trade Center, but our teacher would allow no distractions. Our class plowed through the planned material. But when I arrived at 2nd period chemistry, it was clear that this was no normal day, no small news story, and no accident. Our chemistry teacher didn't say much, and didn't attempt to teach class. We listened to the radio reports from shocked and confused journalists in New York. We heard that commercial airliners had been hijacked and crashed into the towers and the Pentagon; that both towers had just fallen; that the streets of Manhattan were rivers of dust and ash; that tens of thousands were injured, trapped, or dead. It took time for the magnitude of the reports to crystallize in my head. This had happened on American soil? The shock was profo...