What movie is this?

By Adam Jones: On Sept. 11, 2001, I was a 10th-grader at Iowa City West High School. I will never forget the time I walked into my first-period (History of Europe One) class, looked up at the TV and could see an airplane sticking out the side of one of the Twin Towers in New York City.

Everyone's eyes were glued to the television, including my teacher, but the bell hadn't even rang yet. I asked my classmate, "What movie are we watching?" and they explained that it was actually happening.

I was watching the TV when the second plane flew into the tower, when people started jumping out of windows from many stories up -- choosing to fall to their deaths rather than get burned alive, because they couldn't make it to the stairs or it would take too long to get down the stairs with all the people trying to get out.

When I saw the towers collapse and I knew all those people and emergency workers were still inside, I felt my stomach drop. Even though I didn't actually know anyone who worked in the Twin Towers, Pentagon, someone on one of the hijacked planes or one of the emergency responders, I still think about them and their families a lot and how painful that must have been for them.

Losing a loved one is hard enough, but to have the loss be an event that is known all around the world and that is mentioned quite periodically, especially in the late summer and early fall, would be unbearable.