"Did you hear a plane crashed into the World Trade Center?"

When I was junior in high school, third period English had just started, the bell had just rung, when Matt Dietz said aloud to my class - Did you hear a plane just crashed into the World Trade Center? Half the class looked at him in disgust... Dude, that's not funny. Why in the hell would you say that? Not five minutes later, the principal came over the loudspeaker and said "Stop what you're doing, and put on the TV in your classroom. If students need to make phone calls, let them."

It would be a lie to say the rest of the day was a blur, I remember every, single second of it. I remember watching the news in 3rd period as the second plane hit and not knowing if it was a new plane hitting or a replay of the first plane. I remember panicking about where my dad was that day because I knew sometimes he went to New York for deliveries and finally talking to my mom and her saying, "Dana, he's okay. He's not there." - I remember sitting in the dark, in Mr. Patrina's room, my 4th period AP U.S. History class combining with another, to watch as the Towers fell. I remember sitting next to Cara and her whispering to me that she was scared about the Sears Tower in Chicago because that's where her family was. I remember answering a room phone because my teacher wasn't there to a request for another kid in my class to go to the office immediately. His dad made it out alive. I remember being afraid to go outside for lunch that day.

Even after 9 years, there's not a single second of that day that isn't scorched into my brain. I spent most of today watching 9/11 documentaries on the History Channel, more out of respect because I don't know how else to honor that day. It seems silly to me that I feel like I'm doing something in honor of it and all I'm doing is watching TV but I've been thinking about it all day long. How can I ever complain about anything after remembering that day?