As we all should know, on September 11th, 2001, it was not just another Tuesday in America. It became one of the darkest days in U.S. history and changed the world in ways that are still felt today., Two planes struck the World Trade Center in New York City, and everything changed in America that day. So many lives and rules were changed on that horrible day, from security at airports to families who lost loved ones on that day. That morning, four commercial jets were hijacked by 19 terrorists. Two of the planes crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, one into the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., and

Another—United Flight 93—was taken down over a Pennsylvania field after passengers resisted bravely. Close to 3,000 people were killed that day, among them office workers, secretaries, firefighters, police officers, flight attendants, and ordinary people who never could’ve imagined that their lives would end like that. 

I asked my teachers where they were on 9/11 and how it impacted their lives, and here’s what they had to say. Paul Batillga, US History teacher, had this to say- “I was driving to work, I was in the mortgage industry at the time, and on the radio, he heard that a plane hit the first tower. When I got into my office, we had heard that the second tower had been hit; it was a warm Tuesday.” “What was scary and unique for me is thath the week before is that the week before, I was driving from New York City to Buffalo and saw those towers from the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge exactly a week before.” How it Impacted him- He says that he lived for a while in a community in southern Queens called Rockaway Beach, Bell Harbor, and one of the firefighters he had grown up with next door to him died along with 40 other firefighters on the top floor of Cantor Fitzgerald. 

I also asked Mrs Lherman, a history teacher, the same question, and she had this to say-“i was in Jamaica Queens, New York, where I was teaching, and we found out over the announcements the impact was very great because alot of my students parents worked in the city and my husband aslo worked there, i was very nervous  wether or not him or my firends had made it out of the city and i was also trying to calm down the students freaking out.”  

Twenty-two years later, 9/11 is more than just a calendar date—it’s a reminder. It reminds us that nothing is ever promised tomorrow. That’s why when we ask, “Where were you on 9/11?” it’s simply a matter of remembering the lives lost that horrific day, and may they all rest in peace.