I don’t have an amazing story to tell about that terrible day. I don’t have an awe inspiring, detailed monologue to tell everyone about what happened to me ten years ago. Because, lets face it. I was only 9 years old. My biggest worry was what me and my friend were wearing that day at school. However, I do know how it affected me as I grew older, and better understood what happened that day. That day where the world stopped turning, and lives where throw upside down. September 11th, 2001.
My only memory of that day was that of when me and my best friend, Ariana Anderson, were coming home from school, she and I were walking up the stairs when my gamma, grandma, came into the house and asked us if we had heard about what had happened. We told her no, and so she preceded to the television, and Ariana and I lazily leaned against the loft rail and looked out at the living room television. What we saw that day was terrible. Because she and I were so young, we did not fully understand the affects of it, but we did understand it was bad, and people were dying.
A few years later, in 2006 I believe, me, my gamma, and her twin brother, uncle Don, went to the movie theater. There I went to go and see Flight 93. Now, at this point I am 14, I better understand what had happened, and even cried a few tears over it, but it still was not really sunk in. When I sat down in the back of the theater to watch this movie, I didn’t really think anything of it. Just thought it would be just another movie, 2 and a half hours of film, as usual. But I was badly mistaken. I left that room in tears, and a heart full of sorrow and disbelief at what I had seen happen. I couldn’t even stay in the theater the entire movie, I had to walk out because I was crying so bad. I quickly gained my composure and walked back in to see the end. This movie had me in tears, and of full knowledge as to what the American People are capable of. What I saw that day in the theater was what American Pride is all about. Yes, we lost thousands of people that day, and yes, it is a terrible day in history, but it is also a binding, and uniting day in history as we all come together and remember those we are lost due to this tragic incident.
Now, as I am 19 years old, and on the 10 year anniversary of 9/11 I can truly, and honestly say, that I am Proud to be an American.