The Most Important Day Of My Life

Fourteen years ago, our country appeared to come to a halt at 8:46 am. As the first hijacked plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center, Americans were filled with fear and melancholy. And as they held their breath, awaiting some sense of hope, you did what most people could never imagine doing. You went into the buildings while people were going out, holding your own, in the midst of the immense heat and disintegrating steel.

If there is one day I dread most upon its arrival, it would be 9/11. Sure there was an immense amount of strength as a nation represented, following the terrorists attacks, but it also brought a great amount of grief and sorrow. I remember watching videos of innocent people jumping from windows in the twin towers hoping to escape the terror. These people believed there was no one to help and no one to help them. They lost hope. In “Remembering a Hero, 15 Years After 9/11” written by Peggy Noonan, published in The Wall Street Journal on September 11th 2016, Alison Crowther—Welles Crowther’s mom—recalls the courageous actions to save the lives of others, made by her son on this horrific day. Noonan utilizes pathos, ethos, asyndeton, and

September 11, 2001 is a day that shook the United States to its core. Millions of Americans felt the pain, the loss, and the anger that came with the attack on their nation. It was a day of mourning, and when it comes to days of mourning it is difficult putting one’s pain into words. However, Leonard Pitts Jr. was able to move past the emotion. He put into his words, not only his own feelings, but the feelings of an entire nation. Pitts conveys the emotion felt after the terror attacks in his essay “Sept. 12, 2001: We’ll go forward from this moment” through his mournful, angry, and righteous tone.

As an infant on my mother’s hips at the airport it never crossed my mind that things in my life were certainly never going to be the same in the months to come. My very first time at the airport was with my mom when I was eleven days old, and we were able to walk right up to my grandma’s gate to meet her. It was the very first time she met me. The next time I was in an airport was after I got of a plan to meet my whole family for the first time when I was just 2 months old. As before, my family was able to meet my mom and I right at the gate. TSA wasn’t even a thing like it is today. On September 11th of 2000 tragedy struck this nation and nothing has been the same since. My father received a call the morning of the 11th to load up in a P-3 Orion with 10 other people and was set up to be in the air by noon. They flew up and down the coast patrolling for 11 draining hours. They had loaded up the plane with missiles and were told to fire them at any plane in sight. As you can imagine my mom was terrified, because all of what was just listed was unknown information at the time. We were stationed in Brunswick Maine at the time and to my knowledge now, the men who flew the planes into the twin towers started their morning by taking a plane from Portland Maine to Boston, from which they then hijacked the planes that were to be longer flights because they had the most fuel. The things my parents have told me, have changed me into who I am today, based on what they

On a bright sunny Tuesday, September 11th, 2001, started off as an ordinary day where Americans were out working to achieve their ambitious goal called the “ American Dream”. I decided to grab a coffee to start off my day. As I walked by a street vendor, he nicely asked: “ It’s a beautiful day huh?”. I smiled and answered, “ Yes it is sir”. “ What are you up to today? Are you in a rush?” he followed. I answered, “I’m just on my way to grab a coffee and get some fresh air”. He waved as we finished our conversation and I continued towards Starbucks.

It was nearly 10 years ago that a bright September day was darkened by the worst attack on the American people in our history. The images of 9/11 are seared into our national memory -- hijacked planes cutting through a cloudless September sky; the Twin Towers collapsing to the ground; black smoke billowing up from the Pentagon; the wreckage of Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where the actions of heroic citizens saved even more heartbreak and destruction.

It was now the sunday morning of December 7, 1941, where many military personnel had a time of leisure. Many of them either were still sleeping, in halls eating breakfast, or getting ready for church. I who had been in the mess hall having breakfast sat with a group of men, enjoying a warm bowl of oatmeal and coffee. As I took a sip of coffee I felt all my muscles awaken and gain strength ready for what this day would bring me. It was just another day of work, or that is what we all thought. The hall was full of cheerful men laughing, talking, and eating. All of a sudden we heard the sounds of planes racing through the thick air, and the crowd of people grew silent. I looked around as everyones faces grew with fear and confusion, as they ran outside to see what was going on.

When I was four, my father was deployed to Afghanistan. In Virginia, he left my mother, my elder brother, myself, and my newborn brother. I still remember the day he came home, running to him in the airport along my elder brother, and clinging to my father for dear life. I didn’t understand why he had left; I spent many years in ignorance to the 9/11 attacks, or the reason for why my father was away. It was very frightening, because when your parent is taken away to a country that you can’t even pronounce the name of, and fighting a group so horrible that no one was willing to tell a four year old girl who they were, you become depressed and angry. One day, many years later, I was driving with my father in his small, broken, Volkswagen Beetle,

Tuesday morning of September 11, 2001 was a day that no one will forget. I decided to write it out what happened to my family that very day in my mom’s perspective to make it easier to understand. My mom was in Pleasant Hill, CA and decided to skip that day of work because my older sister was sick. Madeleine, my eldest sister, was two at the time. Early in the morning a family friend of ours, Janet, called my mom asking if she saw what was happening. Janet said,” Jeanne the twin towers are on the ground, turn on the news!” My mom was so tired from staying up all night because of Madeleine that when she heard what happened she didn’t belive it. She quickly turned on the news and it replayed the airplanes hiting the twin towers and falling.

Fourteen years ago, my father ran towards chaos as everyone ran away in fear. He believed he was just doing his duty to his country. He loaded up his gear got into the truck and began the long drive into lower Manhattan. Even at 5 years old I can still remember my mother sobbing, begging my dad not to go, not to get on the truck, to let the younger guys go. I remember sitting in front of the television watching the horrible terror that my dad was willingly walking into. My father was one of the hundreds of volunteer firemen that responded on that fateful September day. What didn’t cross our minds was that this heroic act could have negatively impact the rest our lives.

September 11th, 2001 will be a day that Americans remember for many years to come. A tragedy that killed nearly 3000 innocent people. Fifteen years have passed since that infamous day but it will live on through history forever. Although it will never be forgotten, people tend to read up on the events every year or two, especially around the time it happened. As a way to remember or mourn and gain more knowledge on the attacks, people will often read articles or look at photographs of the event. The article “America marks 15-year anniversary of 9/11 Attacks” and Thomas E. Franklins photograph taken on the day of the attacks serve as a way for people to remember and get that information in their own separate ways.

One of the most traumatic events in American history took place on September 11th, 2016. Millions of lives were affected both directly and indirectly by the evil acts of a terrorist group on American soil. While the physical damage done by the days’ events were very clear, the emotional wreckage was a little bit harder to see. The ruble of the twin towers has been cleaned up, and a new building has taken its place but the mental hardships and consequences of the fateful days’ events are still being felt. Paul, a 5 year old in 2001, was a victim of the attack, and encountered unthinkable loss as a result of the inhume actions. The trauma that he was subjected to on 9/11 left a lasting impact on him, and has severely altered his mental health.

9/11 was a horrible time in our country’s history, full of senseless deaths and terrible losses. I interviewed my mom about it, because she remembers the day very clearly. It had such an impact on her emotionally that when I asked the questions, she began to cry. She wiped her eyes several times during the interview, and she was quite clearly sad. There was a somber, dejected, and grief-stricken feeling throughout the interview. From this interview, I learned that 9/11 was a moment that touched the hearts of everyone in the country, even those who weren’t affected. My mom, who lost no family members, friends, or even casual acquaintances in the incident, is still brought to tears at the thought of it. The conversation shed some new light on

Sitting in my office felt like any other day. The sun was shining through my window, I could hear the elevators doors opening and closing, and the smell of coffee seeped into my office. But then, the sound of all of the voices ceased as we felt a rumble in the floor beneath us. I turned to look at my watch, it was 8:45 a.m. on September 11, 2001. I thought my eyes must have been deceiving me as I watched my office walls split apart. Then I heard the footsteps running down the stairs as well as

On September 11th 2001, New York was attacked by terrorists. When asked about the day of the attack, my father told his story. My father’s day started out by him getting on the bus at 4:35 to go to Grand Central Terminal, his job at the time. He arrived at work around six a.m.. He punched in and started his typical day. Three hours went by and this is when things took a turn for the bad side.