Remember

I was in 8th grade.  That day I decided to wear a white button up shirt with my jeans and a brown belt. It was after first period, and I was walking to Mrs. Hobson's U.S. History class.  The halls were silent and I couldn't figure out why no one was talking.  Why were halls were so quiet?  I was in Jr. High.  The halls were never quiet.

I got into my class and took my seat.  I noticed the T.V. was on, which I thought was weird because Channel One wouldn't come on for a few more minutes.  Then I noticed my teacher staring at the T.V.  Most of the other students were watching it too.  There was a lot of smoke.  I saw recaps of the plane hitting the tower.  I saw news reporters giving details of how the tower collapsed. I read the head lines running along the bottom of the screen.  America had been attacked.  I didn't understand.

I went to the rest of my classes that day.  The T.V. was on in all of my classes.  Except my math class. Mrs. Chadwick said we had seen enough of that today.  Boys in my class were cracking jokes about how if Lehi would have been attacked everyone would have been covered in flour from the Roller Mills.  I still didn't get the magnitude of what had happened.  I was in Utah.  That was in New York.

I got home from school and I knew my mom was going to ask me about it.  I saw her and when she asked, I started laughing because I had predicted she would do that.  I went into my room and turned on the radio (because back in the day we didn't have iPod's so radio's were the cool thing) and they were playing "I'm Proud to be An American" over and over again.  I remember hearing "One Voice" by Billy Gillman and that's when it hit me.  I started crying.  Really crying.  Weeping.  I couldn't stop.  It was weird.  I was in Utah.  They were in New York.

I'll never forget the details of this day.  I'll never forget the camaraderie we felt as Americans.  I'll never forget the pride I felt every time I saw an American flag after that.  I'll never forget how this day brought America together as a country.  We stood strong.  We stood together.  We had been hit, but we proved to the world that we could get back up.