Tuesday, September 11th, 6:00a.m: My phone is ringing angrily, waking me from a deep slumber. Who could be calling me this early? I wonder, half asleep. It is my best friend in Los Angeles. “More drama,” I think, but as she screams, “Turn on your T.V.” I realize it must be serious.

I turn on the television and learn the tragic story of the destruction of New York?s twin towers, the lives lost and many more unaccounted for in an assumed terrorist attack on America. The television images seem surreal to me at first and I am not sure what to think or even feel. I get dressed in a fog and somehow drive to school.

The classroom discussion looms around the events and there is an air of fear and confusion. There are people calling for retaliation, echoing comments from President Bush about “smoking ?em out” and questions about how such a thing could happen here in America. Amid the heated discussion around me, I still feel nothing, slight disbelief, a little shock maybe but overall, nothing.

I can honestly say I did not know what to feel that day. When we were told that campus was closing the seriousness really began to hit me. As I walked to my car, I saw the entire school leaving in a rush and I found myself wanting to talk to someone I knew, needing some genuine human interaction. I guess maybe I wanted to hear that everything was going to be alright- who better to call then my father? Daddy couldn?t make it all better, but he was able to offer some reassuring words and a prayer. My sister then called me to check on me and from there the calls continued. Going home to an empty apartment didn?t sound appealing and with a family who lives out of town, I had nowhere else to go but to a friend?s. I remember calling my friend and asking her if I could hang at her place because I didn?t want to be alone. I ended up far from alone, as many of our friends without family in town gathered at her house for some comfort. We sat glued to the news for hours and tried to make sense of something none of us had ever imagined.

We bonded on that day, more than we had ever before. We knew that it was something that we would remember for the rest of our lives, something that would change the way we thought of the world. Tragedy and loss had seemed so far away from us before September 11th, but ignorance could be no longer. We were forced to open our eyes and leave behind our naivete?. We are a part of the world, a world that is unfortunately not so nice sometimes and as a part of the world we are affected by what goes on. That day, through tragedy America grew up and grew together. It is this day that will never be forgotten.