Little Red Radio

This is my 9/11 story.  It's not necessarily a world changing view, but 9/11 affected the entire nation.  I submitted this story to the George W. Bush Presidential Library.  I titled it Little Red Radio:

I was in 8th grade in 2001.  It was only a week or so into school.  I had always been fascinated by skylines for as long as I can remember, and always wanted to visit the top of the World Trade Center.  I had first heard a plane had hit the first tower in my second hour.  It wasn't big news, nor did it really seem to affect us middle schoolers here in Wisconsin; thinking it was an accident.  However, I knew this wasn't the case by my 3rd hour French class.  I walked in, and our teacher had her little red radio on.  We heard the announcement that a second plane had hit the second tower not too long before we entered the classroom.  The teacher turned off the radio and we began our scheduled lesson for the day, but all we could talk about was that two planes hit two buildings.  Before the class had ended, she turned the red radio back on, just in time for us to hear the live reports of the first collapse of the World Trade Center.  We were in disbelief.  All I can remember as I walked out of the classroom was the look of grave concern on my French teacher's face.  It was not a look I had never seen before, nor have I seen since.  We later learned a plane had hit the Pentagon as well.  There was a lot of confusion on what was or was not happening, because some teachers allowed students to watch the news, and some did not.  After lunch, our principal came on the loud speaker.  He announced that our nation was under attack, and if we needed to call our parents to do so.  He also stated that we were on a lockdown; no one in or out without consent from the office.  Additionally, he ordered all televisions be turned off and to complete our planned school day.  I did not see any images until my 8^th hour business class, where our teacher thought it was important for us to see what had happened earlier that morning.  The scope of what was happening was far beyond my comprehension.  On the bus ride home, none of us really understood the real consequences of this day.  I remember traffic was terrible because of Illinois drivers, many of whom were evacuated from Chicago and came to the Milwaukee area to stay with family and friends.  I really didn’t think any of this had any real effect on us until the next day.  A girl in my grade who I had grown up with and lived down the street was not at school the next day.  I came to find out her cousin had died in the Pentagon.  This was when I realized that this strike against our nation affected everyone, everywhere.  I had gained a sense of patriotism, and learned what it was to truly be an American.  The most burning image in my mind was not planes or buildings falling, but a teacher with a look of distress, listening intently to a little red radio.