Ironically, I was in journalism class and I had no idea. So much for being up on the news. It wasn’t until the next period that I heard anything. My teacher made an announcement that a plane had hit the World Trade Center, but no one knew what was going on. We filed in, sat in our assigned seats and took our math test. It was just like any other day.
 

It wasn’t until English class that we got any real information. By then a second plane had hit and the enormity of it all had begun to sink in. We were glued to the television. Eventually teachers were told to turn off the TV, it was upsetting students and there was nothing new to report. But for the moment, we were transfixed.
 

And then the announcements started. One by one parents came to take their kids out of school early. The voice on the loud speaker droned on, with a continuous stream of students who should come to the office for dismissal. My parents didn’t come. They didn’t even know. They were on vacation in the middle of nowhere, Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
 

That day is obviously one I won’t forget. But another powerful moment came a couple of months later. My family had already planned a trip from Florida to New York for December. At that point there were still armed officers in the airports patrolling, and while things had calmed down, there was still an undercurrent of fear.
 

In New York, we trekked down to Ground Zero. As former New Yorkers, born and raised, my parents were shocked by the glaring absence of the Towers. But what I remember best is the blocks and blocks of fences covered in missing person posters, tributes to loved ones, I Love New York T-shirts and fresh flowers. I walked along, absorbing it all.
 

Now that I work just a block or two from Ground Zero, I still remember it the way it was that day in December. The posters are gone and no one really leaves fresh flowers there anymore, but I can’t shake that image. Today, though, I look forward to the building of the Freedom Towers and the potential for a new image to take shape, though the old one will probably never fade.