I remember...

By Ruth Martinez: I was in my 7th grade math class.

My teacher had just passed out the test we were going to take. That's when our principal came on over the speaker system telling everyone that some kind of accident had happened in New York. My teacher turned on the TV, and we sat there looking at the screen unsure of what exactly was going on.

I remember watching the TV and seeing everyone running around trying to figure out what was going on. I sat there watching for about 5 or 10 minutes, and that's when it happened, the second plane hit the second tower.

I was scared and confused. I remember starting to cry when the news said it was a terrorist attack. What did they mean by that? I was only 12 at the time. I was just a kid from Iowa, but I did realize that our country may not be perfect. When my teacher turned off the TV, she had tears in her eyes. I remember her telling my whole class that we would remember that day for the rest of our lives. I left that class thinking about what she said.

The rest of the day, we kept seeing the horrors of that day. I remember seeing the towers fall, and the lives lost, and the horrific things that happened that day. But I also remember seeing how we as a nation came together united in pain and also united in resilience. That is something I will remember forever: the resilience of this nation.