8 years ago today...

[em_adpi]

I was in San Antonio in my 8th grade math class when my principal came over the intercom and asked all the teachers to turn off radios and TVs. Of course, several of them turned them on... at that point, we all thought it was a commuter plane.

I ran down the hall to my old science teacher's room in time to see the plane crash into the North tower. My father had only been out of the Air Force about four years at that point but still worked on an Air Force base, and I was concerned that he would be reactivated. Maybe that was silly to think, but I was 13 years old and no one would tell us anything. My mother also worked in the Medical Center, where there were rumors of bomb threats.

I remember friends' parents coming to say goodbye as their military units were activated for one reason or another. It was complete and utter chaos - no one knew exactly what was happening.

Both of my parents were there to pick us from school that day, only to have to go to the hospital because my grandmother had fallen and shattered her elbow on another Air Force base in town. The hospital was insane because San Antonio was on alert to receive patients from NYC and D.C. - this was before we knew that there wouldn't be any.

While it was comforting to see my parents, I remember the main voice of comfort for me was Laura Bush. She addressed the children in the nation, reminding us that while things were kind of messy at the moment, that the adults were doing everything they could to keep us safe.

I visited Ground Zero during my trip to NYC for Christmas 2007. Words cannot express what I felt standing there, remembering my last trip to NYC in 1997. I remember driving by the WTC and asking to go up to the Observation Deck, but my mom said we would go the next time we were there. Little did we know that it would be another 10 years or that they would be gone.