10 Years After 9/11/01 I normally don’t deviate from technology when it comes to this website, my twitter, or my Youtube. But it has been ten years after the attacks, and I saw this blog as a the perfect medium to express my thoughts. I was 7 or so when the attacks happen. I remember being in my first week of second grade when I came home one day and saw the news. The extent or impact of the attacks didn’t hit me because I was still so young and naive. My mind couldn’t comprehend the idea of an attack, not just to the country, but to the city I had had practically visited every weekend. The images of debris and people crying didn’t hit me emotionally until a few years after. Both of parents worked in the city when the attacks happened. Cell service was interrupted going into the city, so my brother and I couldn’t make contact with them for hours. It took my mom almost nine hours to return home. She saw the second plane hit the towers from her office. What normally be a short 45 minute bus ride home, took her nine hours to walk to the Ferry, wait in line, and finally travel back to NJ. My dad did not even bother trying to drive home. He stayed the night. A week after the attack, news spread around my chinese school that our beloved principal had passed away in the World Trade Center. I then only began realizing the pain people all around me felt. Our small tight knit community at the chinese school mourned together. The attacks in NYC finally made a personal impact in my daily life. I knew the sons who had lost their father, and the teachers who didn’t have a coworker anymore. The Star Ledger came to report about my chinese school weeks later, and that is why there is a picture of me above this post. I made the inside cover of the Star Ledger as the face of the small chinese school in NJ mourning their principal. I will never forget that image, and the kindness of my principal. As 9/11/01 becomes more and more distant from time, I hope my generation will never the impact the attacks have made on our childhood. A piece of our innocence that we brought to school that day, was taken away by the images and horror stories we heard after. Every year I think about those who have perished and those who have lost people to the attacks around the country. It saddens me to know that such a vile event could still happen during our lifetime. I will never forget what 9/11/01 means to me as an American.
