9/11: A Day That Re-shaped America

It was a day that started out like any day on September 11, 2001. Everyone went about their daily routine—waking up in the morning, getting dressed and ready for the day, leaving home to head for work, school, or to run errands, or to travel to places that people were destined to be. Nobody expected anything to go wrong that day—not even terribly wrong.

But on that day, something went terribly wrong. At 8:46 a.m. in New York City, an airplane crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. At first, everyone thought it was an accident. But when another airplane hit the South Tower, we all knew it wasn’t an accident. It was an attack on America. It was an attack planned and intended to hurt America, to break America and to destroy America. Not only did tragedy & horror strike at the World Trade Center, but they also struck at the Pentagon and in a field at Pennsylvania. It was one of the greatest tragedies that America had suffered.

           I was 7 years old, nearly eight, when America was under attack. When the news was spreading worldwide, I was at home in northern Mexico with my mom while my dad worked as a government official in Mexico City and all three of my older sisters were at school. The oldest two were in college while the third sister was a junior in high school.

           On that day, I walked into the family living room where my mom was watching the news. When I heard her crying, I went to check on her to see what was wrong.

           “Mom,” I asked, “Why are you crying?”

            She turned her head towards me, showing her eyes red and her face wet with tears. “Mommy is crying because some airplanes crashed into the Twin Towers and a lot of people died.”

           Though I was seven and still too young to understand what was happening, I hugged my mom to comfort her and I cried with her as we stared at the TV screen, witnessing the horror taking place. It was an event that made an impact on me, despite that I was a little girl who didn’t have the full understanding of that horrific tragedy like I do now.

           As I grew older and learned more about the 9/11 attacks, there were days when I was not only sad, but also angry that the terrorists had needlessly taken away the innocent lives of 2,977 people for a cause they had considered noble and just. But, I also try to remember the acts of courage and sacrifice that the police, firefighters, doctors and civilians had showed on 9/11, including the passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 who stopped the hijackers from crashing the airplane into the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., even though it cost them their lives.

          The terrorists responsible for the attacks wanted to break us and destroy us, the Americans. They did leave scars behind, starting in New York. But, those scars have shown that we are stronger than they think we are. When tragedy struck in New York, people came together in unity and did what they could to save the lives of those who were affected. They showed what they were capable of—what human beings are capable of.

          9/11 was a tragedy that did more than break our hearts. It shattered them and changed our lives forever. But on that tragic day, it brought out the goodness that none of us could’ve known existed within us in such adversities. The firefighters, the police officers, the civilians and many more who worked together to help on September 11, 2001 were examples of being triumphant over adversaries. If we could put aside the hate and the anger that came from the attacks and stand together in unity to fight the evil instead, then we are able to triumph over the adversaries.