“Ten Years Ago” by Nyla Holland, Southfield MI

topic: 9/11 medium: TEXT

as submitted for the “9/11” Open Call

Ten years ago, I was a sophomore in high school. It was in the same year that I just moved to Southfield to begin a new life at a new high school. I learned about the 9/11 event during my home room hour. Someone barged into the room and urgently requested the teacher to turn on the television. Lo and behold, there were two planes crashing into the twin towers of the World Trade Center building. At first, I saw it as a plane crash. Maybe it was an accident. Some time later, I realized that moment was anything but an accident.

After I got home from school, I flip through the television channels and most of them are talking about what had happened that day. What stood out the most for me was watching young kids in Palestine holding up peace signs. It kind of made me outraged and disgusted. Why would they be celebrating this? After a discussion with my father, I understood why. There’s a nasty history between the US and Palestine, and they were happy that US got their just desserts. I understood that the US got theirs, not only for their history with Palestine, but also their treatment of other countries. Who knows? Maybe other countries were celebrating, but it wasn’t caught on camera.

On the surface, it was great that this moment in America made all citizens come together and call each other Americans. However, I knew better. After all, I never saw this much patriotism before this incident. I believe that America has finally gotten what it deserved. Our country was better off remaining a neutral country as was promised during the first World War. However, America had to prove how big and tough it is. Since then, so much pain, suffering, and broken ties have run deep that it appears as if there’s no turning back. Now, since that day, America has been changed forever through tighter security at airports, and their attempts to getting rid of illegal immigrants. America thought it was safe, but 9/11 proved that this event could happen anywhere. As well as to anyone.

9/11 hasn’t really shaped me at all. All it has done is to help put some things in perspective in why it happened. I can only hope that something like this never happens again. I can also hope that America can truly live up to its promise of diversity, peace, and, importantly, “the land of the free, and the home of the brave.”