The Day the Buildings Fell

The second post by Kjersty Elizabeth Martinez Olson

Marching band practice was my reason to be awake so early. 6 am was way too early for a Junior in high school to be awake, but I voluntarily agreed to put myself through it. It was very dark outside and very cold. I had arrived a few minutes early so the quiet morning was still mine. The stars were so bright against the dark sky that is seemed like the most perfect morning. This morning was like no other morning I had ever experienced, it was amazing. I would later find out that this morning truly was like no other in my lifetime, but for every reason opposite of what was going through my head at that point.
At the other end of the country at that moment while I was standing in awe of the beautiful night sky a building had been crashed into by an airplane. I had nothing to complain about that compared anywhere close to what the people in New York were going through, but I was the one selfishly complaining about having to wake up early and be out in the cold.
Math class was where I learned about the massive tragedy that had just occurred. I sad watching the television that I thought played a movie, but in fact it was reality. I didn't, or couldn't comprehend what the news reporter was telling me. Why would they say such things? People don't attack our country, this had to be some sort of accident. It was at that moment that I witnessed the second plane crash purposefully into the second building.
My class watched in disbelief. Silently we sat, beginning to wonder if we would also die that day. Some cried, some got angry, and everyone wanted to call home to make sure their families were still okay. I just continued to sit quietly refusing to believe what I just saw. My eyes had to have been deceiving me. There is no way that people would dare to attack the United States of America...NO Possible way! The World Trade Towers, which I had never even heard of before this day, were pouring out smoke over the whole city. People were running and screaming like they would on an intense action film while we watched glued to the screen with a small grin on our faces knowing that it is just a movie. The scary part was that this wasn't a movie and we did not have grins on our faces. We had horror-stricken faces as the first tower started to fall. All the people in that building were dyeing and we were watching them die. All we could do was watch. There were people jumping out of the windows from the very top floor. They said it was raining people. I don't know how it would feel to have things be so extremely bad that the only logical answer is to jump out of a 110 floor building window. So many people were dyeing at that very moment, thousands of people, but I could do nothing, nothing to help them get out, nothing to ease their pain. Then the other one fell. How many people would have to die that day? People were comparing the severity of this even to Pearl harbor and the Civil War. Sad as this much destruction is, it wasn't the only bad thing that was happening. The pentagon had also been hit. A huge chunk of it was smashed into an unrecognizable void where more people died. That was when I heard the name Osama Bin Laden for the first time. How was it possible for a man to be capable of creating mass destruction to our country and we had no idea that he even existed? Shouldn't we know about these sort of people?
The emotions were just running continuously through my brain as if it kept happening over and over again. For all I knew, they were coming to kill everyone that day. We have one of the biggest air force bases in the U.S. right here in my own city. Maybe they would destroy it as well.
The day the buildings fell down I saw countless unimaginable things happen at my school. I saw people comforting people who they never would have even talk to before. I saw some popular, 'tough' guys cry, Most importantly, I saw people care for this country and for God again. Everywhere I went after that day the marquees on buildings said 'God Bless the USA' and the American flag was flying in front of every single building and most houses. It was like the fourth of July, except it was every day for at least a year. It was amazing. The terrorists tried to break our country apart, but instead they created more unity and pride for our country. Those people who died in those buildings were like heroes who mended out broken country, and the fire fighters who both lived and died were like super heroes who helped so many people live that would not have lived otherwise.
I know there is a lot of controversy over war or no war, but the fact is that if we could remember the way we felt that day when we sat and watched that second plane hit the building, I am sure you would remember why we went to war in the first place. You can't mess with this country and expect us to stand back and watch them bring the war here. We had to keep it away from us. Do you want to live in a place where you can hear constant bombings and fighting going on just out your window? I don't.

-Kjersty Elizabeth Martinez Olson