Everything happens for a reason. But what could be the reason for killing hundreds of innocent people on a regular day in the middle of the week? What could be the reason for ruining families, destroying lives and causing mayhem throughout the world, even 5 years after the incident?
September 11th, 2001 was a Tuesday. I was 11 years old at the time and in 7th grade, attending school in the Russian Embassy in Washington DC. Everyone in the Emabassy lived on the its grounds except me. I had a special right to attend school there, but it was agreed that I would go straight home every single day right after school. This day was no different.
My class and I were walking into the main building from art class when we heard announcements throughout the Embassy that a plane had crashed in New York and something was happening at the Pentagon.
The school closed, everyone went back home and I was practically forced out of the Embassy onto the street. My first thought was about my dad, whom I hoped nothing had happened to, as he worked near the Pentagon. My second thought was for myself. 11 years old, in the middle of a big city with no money and no way to get home. Wherever I turned, people were running, screaming; the city was just in general chaos.
I somehow got to the bridge that separates Virginia from Washington DC. To get over it, you needed to show some ID which, being 11, I did not have, so I was not allowed to cross. I remember seeing the smoke billowing to my left, the sound of helicopters, ambulances, fire trucks. What frightened me most was the complete and utter lack of order. A city which usually looks perfect, people who look in control of themselves and their emotions; everything was in dissaray. There was noone to turn to, noone to help me. I remember standing on the corner of M street and Key bridge, crying, not becasue I was frightened of what was happening, but becausue I did not know what was happening. I kept hearing the words "terrorist" and "terrorism" and I remember having a fleeting thought that I was going to die.
I could not reach any of my relatives, as cell phones were not working. I did not know if they were dead, if they were trapped somewhere, if they were thinking something had happened to me.
In those few hours of sitting on that street corner, I saw America unravelling before my eyes. The sense of safety and security that had wrapped America and its citizens for years and years had disappearerd, leaving in its wake disruption and chaos. I remember thinking that it was not only the terrorist attacks that had shaken the country. Not the actual attacks, but the fact that they had happened to the USA. The country many had fled to from Europe, from all over the world to find safety and a better life.
I remember thinking "What country is safe, if not America?". "Why do they hate us so much?". I did not know who "they" were, but it seemed a good idea to blame others for what had happened. I do not think people even stopped to think that they might have been at fault for what had happened. The only things everyone saw and heard were the blatantly obvious facts: "they" had attacked us, therefore "they" were at fault. Noone thought about what had caused these attacks, noone was worried about it then.
I finally got home at night, and everybody in my family was, thankfully, fine. As soon as I walked through the door I was enveloped in arms and hugs from people I did not even know, and I noticed that a lot of our neighbors had come to our house to wait for me and to make sure my parents were all right. That was when I noticed that this tragedy cause so much pain and suffering, but that it also brought people together.
For weeks after September 11th the mood in Washington DC was different than usual. People were friendlier, everyone did not seem to be in such a rush as usual. I believe that everyone has gained something from living through the terrosrist attacks of September 11th. Everybody has gained a new sense of living life to its fullest, of not wasting a second of it.
Now, 5 years later, most people do not think about this attack. Those for whom it is hardest are undoubtdly the ones that had lost someone close that Tuesday. For the rest of us, we feel as though it happened, it is done, no use thinking about it. But every day we receive news of what is happening in the Middle East, of all who die to protect America and all of its citizens. These soldiers will never be forgotten. The cause for which they are fighting will always be remembered.
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