h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello, all. I'm a Junior in High School (in the US) and when the attacks of September 11th occurred, I was a Sophomore. I was in my 2nd period Spanish class, and it was the end of the period, the time when we all have our brunch, and watch the news. Talking amongst eachother, we rarely watched the news, even though it was always on.

Then we heard our Spanish teacher (who's rather rusty in the English department) say, "Oh..goodness...look at that!" We all focused our attention on the TV, where clips of the buildings were showing. At first, I don't think any of us took it as seriously as we should have. I know I was thinking "Oh, more violence. What is the world coming to...Are you going to finish that yogurt?" And I'm sure everyone elses thoughts were just as lax as mine were. But by the next period, we were struck with the horrific truth of what had happened. None of the TV's in the entire school were turned off. We did nothing but watch TV...all day. At the end of the day, those who wanted to participate had a giant prayer circle near a large Oak tree in our School's front yard. It was a very emotional time. We were surpised we were allowed to have the prayer circle at all, because our school is very strict about keeping church and state separate.

Over the course of the next few days, the atmosphere changed very little. The TV's stayed on, and students got angrier and angrier. Accusations were flying about who did what, I remember having a heated conversation with some friends over whether or not it was done by China. It's a strange feeling. Just like our parents always told us, "I remember when Kennedy was shot...I remember just where I was." or Martin Luther King, Jr. Or even Elvis Presley. It's strange to think that I'll be able to tell my children "I remember where I was when our country was attacked."

Osama jokes were flooding the school. Even teachers joined in, printing off their favorite Afghanistan-related e-mails and reading them to us in class.

I was scared that day, yes. There was even talk of Omaha, Nebraska being attacked (I live in Nebraska, just across the state.) Because of it's Strategic Air Command center, and other government related things. Rumors flew. Speculation rose. But the hubbub died down. Nowadays, I'm hearing more of "Oh, you're kidding...it's already been a year? It feels like that was just last week." And it does. Time flew. I don't think a day has gone by since then that I don't hear something about September 11th, Osama Bin Laden, the Twin Towers, or any other related thing. And that's alright. It just goes to show you that we Americans remember things. We don't forget easily. Or forgive. We're proud of our country.

So 2002 was a strange school year for me. I think it was for everybody. I'm part of the generation that witnessed this. I will carry on the stories later in my life. I'm proud that I have the privelege of doing that.

Darth Zaphod