"This day made us realize who true heroes are. They’re not the actors on TV, they’re the people risking their lives everyday so that others can have another chance."

Anonymous

"I remember seeing the images of the towers falling on television, and remember being in disbelief. I was sitting with my father and the both of us were on the verge of  tears. It was unbelievable."

Dion Green - Staff

"I was in the school watching television from the photography room. I had to lock the school down, and felt really bad for everything that was going on."

Jay Wright - Staff

"I was walking into a middle school room, when the teacher asked me what was going on. When I arrived at my home that afternoon--two miles from the Pentagon--I could smell the smoke from the plane that hit the Pentagon. After the tragedy, everyone became united, but a year later they all went back to their regular lives."

Nabeela Chowdhury - Freshman

At the time of the disaster, Nabeela was changing hotel rooms. When her mother walked in, she thought that whatever was on the television was a movie. "As a Muslim I know that Jihad (the supposed reason Ben Laden gave for the attacks) isn’t really allowed for anyone who just wants to kill. If someone were killing Muslims just because they are Muslims, (like Hitler with the Jews) it should only be in self-defense. What Osama did was not Islamic."

Andrew Roller – Senior

"I was out on the fields during P.E. when Mr. Dickson came out and informed us that the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were on fire. He told us we could see the smoke rising from the Pentagon. I could not see any smoke and did not believe Mr. Dickson, or maybe I did not want to. Our class returned to the locker room and a radio was on in the trainer’s office and we found out that Mr. Dickson was serious."

A student came in asking about if Mr.Wilkie had checked the internet, he saw smoke coming from the Trade Centers. "I wasn’t fazed" says Dan Wilkie. "When I arrived home the second tower had already fallen." He and his wife were very worried for her father, because he works a street down from the Towers.

All I could think about was where is my mom working today? The Naval Yard or the Pentagon? Will I go live with my dad, Mike (my stepfather), or somebody else if she died? 

I was in English class in my school in Portugal. Administrators kept running in and out of my class talking to my teacher. When school got out at 3:00, the Portuguese press was lined up outside my school because it was the American International School there. Later, they reported our school had been evacuated at 3:00 when that’s the normal time we were released.

I was living in Spain when this happened when I had just turned thirteen. It happened the day before school started and I had been at a barbeque the whole day. When I got home at night my mom told me there had been a terrorist attack on the twin towers. I didn’t really have strong feelings about it at the time since I was living in another country.

I didn’t know what was going on until lunch, although I heard people whispering in the hallways. When I heard what happened, I was disturbed and upset, but I felt disconnected from it because it didn’t personally affect me.

I didn’t expect that to ever happen in my lifetime. It’s incredibly sad and tragic that so many people had to die in that way.
 

When I first heard about 9/11 I was in shock. I now understand that terrorism is a bigger threat then any of us realized.