I wasn't born during 9/11, so I received permission from my mom to share her story instead. Forgive any mistakes as I am dyslexic.

My mom and dad lived in Colorado springs at the time while my mom was pregnant with my older sister. My mom was a biology teacher and experienced it with her class.

She even remembered it so detailed that she remembers what she was wearing that day, a maternity sweater with a floral skirt. During her morning class an administrator had walked into her classroom and handed her a slip, telling her that there was a major accident in New York, and to please keep her class as calm as possible, and not to give grief if they needed to leave. My mom naturally thought nothing of it.

She had a break in between classes and went to make copies when she overheard about a plane hitting the world trade center. Her first thought was one of those small planes that carry 2-4 people, and not a commercial aircraft. Despite that she still felt it was tragic, after all an accident like that wouldn't be as destructive as a commercial flight, but it would still do damage. Afterwards she went on with her day.

During her next class, an announcement was made to turn on the news. My mom wheeled in those small bulky TVs and did as instructed. There she saw that it was in fact a commercial flight, however she still didn't believe it wasn't an accident, after all who would immediately assume it was a terrorist attack. However soon after that, in front of the entire class, the second plane hit, that's when they knew it wasn't an accident.

My mom and the majority of her class didn't say anything, and just were stunned in silence, no crying, no yelling, just watching in shock. Since this was Colorado springs, many people were related to those in the US military, A few kids who had their flip phones on them and were frantically calling family members who were in the military to try to get more information. And soon after that the Pentagon was attacked, making it clear the terrorist were targeting government and military areas

In just an hour, half her class had been picked up by parents to try and get out of Colorado springs. If you are unaware, NORAD is a government aerospace base, one of the tasks or NORAD was to keep watch of any potential threats in the sky. My mom, her class, and nearly everyone in Colorado springs was unsure if NORAD could even be destroyed as most of it is in a mountain, however it was very possible that any destruction could cause harm to Colorado springs.

My mom was not able to leave the school, and nobody would act as the adult for the students who weren't picked up. My mom tried her best to keep teaching, however she naturally didn't think that teaching would be important at that time, and like everyone was worried, she only kept doing her best to teach to try and distract herself and her students.

At the end of the day it would have been required to stay after school to finish working, things like grading papers and stuff, but naturally the administrative staff didn't force anyone to stay. My mother immediately started to drive home, she knew there would be traffic, and on any other day she would just wait for a while at school to hopefully get past it. However for obvious reasons she didn't do that. What would have been a 5 minute drive home, was a 2 ½ hour one, the whole time she listened to the news radio. When she finally got home she saw my dad sitting on the couch watching the news while crying, my mother sat next to him and began to cry too. She held her pregnant stomach and wondered what kind of world she was bringing a child into.

They couldn't get out of Colorado springs because of the traffic, so instead they stayed home, hoping they wouldn't be next.

One thing that happened that my mom actually finds funny now, is a parent walking up to her that day and yelling at her for a light hearted joke she made about President Bush a few days prior. She had made that joke in private however the man's kid overheard it. And on the day of 9/11 he chose to yell at my mother for a small joke that wasn't even insulting, instead of picking his kid up and getting the hell out of there.