Until this very day, September 11th, 2001 haunts my dreams. It’s a reoccurring nightmare that I can never forget it no matter how hard I try.

And so, the moment when I heard that our country was under attack is permanently etched into my memory, and every year the events of that fateful day replay themselves in my mind’s eye with crystal clear clarity.

Seven years ago, I was a junior attending All Hallows High School in the Bronx, living a care-free life and coming off a summer where I did nothing but see my then-girlfriend every day. Right before I heard the news, I was sitting in my English Literature class daydreaming about my bed and hoping my teacher, Mr. Brenner, would stop rambling on about the motifs of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road.

When Mr. Brenner asked students if they even bothered to read the assigned pages, the classroom became quiet, but before he could chastise everyone, the silence was broken by the sound of my Principal’s voice over the intercom.

“Attention, colleagues and students. Just moments ago, two planes crashed into the World Trade Center. There is no word yet as to the cause,” he said in an unsure and noticeably shaken tone.

For a moment, he paused, and in that time, Mr. Brenner yelled ‘what’ and stormed out of the classroom.

You see – he had several family members and friends who worked there, and like most New Yorkers, he wanted to know if they were OK.

The rest of us remained seated and dumbstruck. My friends started calling their families, and I – not having a cell phone at the time – sat impatiently in my seat, waiting for a phone to free up.

My mother had told me that morning she was going to be in Manhattan with friends, but I didn’t know where. Thankfully, I found out she was in upper Manhattan – far away from Ground Zero but still stranded because access to city had been cut off.

Naturally, the school administration let us leave shortly thereafter.

Admittedly, I had been in a daze for most of the day, struggling to grasp the gravity of the situation. But, on my way home, I saw it – the thick clouds of smoke over the Manhattan skyline.

And in that moment, I finally understood -- my world had changed and my life would never be the same.