September 11, 2001

My Story

By: Jessica Z.

age 16, grade 11

When I first heard about it was after first hour. It was passing time and I was trying to open my locker. One of my friends came up and said, “ Have you heard about Trade Centers?” I didn’t even know what they were. By that time two of my other friends showed up and were automatically talking about it. They all explained what the Trade Center was so I knew. Once the hallways were all filled with students, that was all you heard walking down the halls. I think I even heard someone going hysteric. I was shocked to even hear that someone would do something like that. I was also confused. In my second hour we pretty much just watched the TV. My teacher seemed very concerned and everyone seemed to be in awe. We didn’t get much homework done in that class. After that I went to my third hour class. The teacher had been watching it since early this morning and said that nothing big was happening at that moment that they were just repeating everything. He told us that at the end of the hour we will turn it back on to see if anything new had happened. We discussed what was going on and then did a little work and at the end turned the TV on. In my forth hour people were still talking about it and we had a good debate going on between what we should do. The teacher wanted to discuss it and see how are feelings were. Some people wanted to just jump right up and start blasting any country that was suspicious. Other people just wanted to take time to figure out who really did it. Some people didn’t even want to go to war. Some didn’t know what to do, like me. They seemed so confused that they were speechless. I went to my fifth hour then and it seemed a little calmer in that class. We still talked about it because I was in Geography. People were feeling so bad for all the people, friends, and relatives that are there or know there. I still don’t really know what to think about what happened.

I am torn between a couple of decisions. One would be to go to war. I feel that they should be punished for what they did. What they did was wrong. They killed and destroyed thousands of people’s lives if not more. They shouldn’t get off easy. Another reason is to not go to war. That is because I know a lot of people from the first age group that would be called up. I wouldn’t want them to go before I said good bye. I have a baby boy and the father of it would be in that age group. I don’t know how I would live with out him. Also what if we could still punish them with out going to war. That would be one of the best solutions to me but I don’t know one to give out if I did I would list it.

I feel so bad for the people that live there or have friends/relatives that live there. I don’t know how they are doing this. It would take a truly strong person to get through them. I give my thoughts and prayers out to them. It takes a lot of courage to be that strong and go through that. I hope those people get rewarded some how in there life for this. They deserve it.