Many were well aware of the death and destruction that would forever cement a day in history for the people of America. This day was to be called 9/11. It was a day that had little significance until 19 men boarded three airplanes and decided to change to course of history. The pentagon a field in Pennsylvania and of courses the World Trade Centers. At roughly 9 o’clock on a Tuesday morning the unthinkable happened and 3000 people lost their lives that day. Where was I, I was sitting in classroom taking a spelling test and at the time all my 7 year old brain could think about was how to spell “machine.” I was in the first grade and at time I was unaware of any the events unfolding in New York but as I looked back from that day it dawned on me a few years later as to just what had happen. No one had told me that we had been attacked I remembered later that I was told that day that a teacher ran out of her room crying. I never truly understood what it all meant until the 6th anniversary when we watched a documentary on the attack and all of the events came back the hushed voices of the teacher, another student saying to me “did you hear, Mrs. Carpenter just ran out of her room crying.” And I never forget the fear the complete and utter fear that I saw in my mother’s eyes that day. She picked me up after school that day and gave me a look of relief but under her calm demeanor I saw the most unmistakable look of pure horror. As I sat in the 7th grade the events that had occurred six years earlier all made sense and I had taken all of the emotion and drama in with out ever knowing it and it took me one good jolt to let it all come back and sink in. What a seven year olds brain could not comprehend my twenty-year-old brain can fully weigh and measure the gravity of the horrific event, which is 9/11. From class rooms to a lecture halls no matter where I go thirteen years can pass thirty years could pass and I will never forget sitting in that class room trying to spell Machine and then the terror of my teachers and mother that they were over come by. I knew that they were trying to keep us safe and though we try to hide our children we try to keep them out of harms way there is no lying that can’t be seen through our children’s eye’s.

Always Forgive, But never Forget 9/11

Sincerely,
Ryan Alexander Bradford