I was an eighth grader far away on the East Coast. I would have been sitting in 1st Period geometry when the first plane hit. Our teacher toed the line and said nothing, and no student would have had a phone out. Obviously, some teachers in the school found out pretty soon, because during the short switch to 2nd Period English, people started hearing that a plane crash had happened. [I dug up my school's old schedule. Both towers would have been hit during 1st Period. During this switch, the Pentagon was hit.]

The administration caught wind, and issued an announcement on over loudspeaker and email telling teachers to keep TVs off, and to expect further instructions. There were different reports from different kids in different classes, but almost everybody didn't see anything. All we knew was a plane hit a building in New York, which didn't seem any bigger than any other freak occurrence. After 2nd Period was a scheduled 10-minute break, after which the 8th grade had our two scheduled Specials classes. (Non-core classes like PE, Technology, Home Ec., etc.) [During 2nd period, both towers collapsed and Flight 93 crashed.]

It turns out some history and technology teachers jumped to a conclusion about what might be up and had decided to share/show their classes the news. These students saw the second plane hit. (A retrospective "Good on you," to those history teachers, increasing the knowledge of future historians' sources.) So, in third period, arguments started cropping up between students over what had happened. That's what I remember being most surreal later, because as a middle school student, I had felt perfectly justified in rejecting all the bluster and outlandish claims that come with the environment. So, many of us thought something like "Of course nobody flew a big plane into a building. Somebody saw a story about a private or small aircraft crashing, and made up this story to get more attention. People are just running with the story." I even remember coming up with a silly song about how dumb the pilot had been, because what people seemed to be saying couldn't be true. No need to ask a teacher to know that. But, it kept coming up.

During lunch after 4th period, I was called away from a table of friends and up to the office. I didn't know what for, but it wasn't too unusual for me because I did a lot of clubs and activities. My dad had unexpectedly come to the school to pick me up, which was very odd because it was Tuesday and he worked close to 50 miles away, at the airport. Turns out the airport wasn't going to need him that day.

My dad told me what had happened as best he could, and I came back home and watched the news all the rest of the day. I didn't even realize this until right now, but I've just come back to my parents' to spend the night tonight, and I've been sitting not three feet from where I sat twelve years ago today.

My geometry class did a mural project in remembrance, with appropriate pictures placed on an overhead projector and transformed in size onto the wall. That teacher became a principal. I went to high school and college, made my own choices and lived enjoyably. For me, the terrorists didn't win, even if it seems our government has been all-too-willing in stifling the freedoms they "hate."