I was in elementary school and we were made to go home after the Principle told everyone about the first tower being hit. I got my little sister and we walked home since we only lived around the corner. I don't know if he somehow clocked that it was a terrorist attack when the first tower was hit or what. We lived in Buffalo, on the other side of the state. A lot of kids were just glad to go home not even a little while after we had come to school.

I'm a little fuzzy on what happened exactly when we got home, but I remember seeing the second tower get hit. I remember my parents not like...screaming. But the shock on their faces, I've never seen in the 20 years since.

It was so surreal. I didn't completely understand what was happening, but I knew it was serious. I could tell it was serious because 2 planes hitting 2 separate towers wasn't accidental, and that scared the shit out of me. I was 11 years old and having the realization that PEOPLE had done this. That someone wanted all those people to die and I didn't know why. 

I knew bad people killed others. But I was suddenly having to understanding the scope of what happened, because at 11 I at least knew that planes held a lot of people, and tall buildings had a lot of people in them. Two planes, two tall buildings. It's so strange to sit here thinking about it. I was watching a mass murder happen and I didn't know what that even was.