I can’t believe that this Sunday is the 10th anniversary of the tragic terrorist attacks on 9/11. Even though I was only 10 years old and in 5th grade at the time, I still remember exactly what I was doing, where I was, and who was I with. That day I was sitting down with my classmates when all of a sudden I was called down to the office for dismissal. All of my classmates asked if they could leave with me – I started smiling and said that it was probably a mistake. My parents were at work and neither of them said that they were going to pick me up early, but I got my things together and went down to the office.

As I was walking to the office I saw my dad so I started walking faster. My father signed me out and we walked to the car. I was excited because I was leaving school early, but confused because that usually never happened unless I had a doctor’s appointment. When we got into the car, I asked my dad why he came to pick me up and where were we going. He told me that he came because there was a terrorist attack in New York and nobody knew where they were going to hit next, and wanted me to be with my family.

I remember that during the entire car ride, most (if not all) radio stations were talking about what happened. Then, when I got to my grandmothers, I saw my family watching the news. The clip in which the planes crashed into the twin towers was played over and over, and as a 10 year old, it looked cool to me.

I didn’t understand the complexity of the situation, the danger that so many people were in, or the pain that their families were feeling. At that moment, I was just happy that I was out of school, and I felt special because my father picked me up. I started calling my cousins parents to tell them that my father picked me up from school and that they should do the same with their kids. Soon, all of my cousins were at my grandmothers house and we were celebrating because we were out of school. We didn’t know any better.

I remember that the next day, everything went back to normal at my house, I went back to school, and my parents went back to work. Luckily, our family wasn’t affected. We have family in New York, but none of them were hurt. My mother was a little afraid to go back to work that day; she worked in a large building in Boston and was scared that terrorists were going to attack there next.

As for the people around me; I don’t think I knew anyone that was directly affected by the 9/11 incident except for maybe one of my friends from school that had a relative either on a plane that crashed or who worked in the WTC… but it’s all a faded memory for me now.

-Erica