three years later...
"has anyone ever read you a fairy tale?
and taken you to places, magical?
where homes are made of gingerbread,
and skies are always blue;
where pumpkins turn to coaches,
and wishes all come true?
has anyone ever sang you a lullaby?
you can fly above the rain clouds.
close your eyes let the melody carry you.
leave all your fears behind
and float across the rainbow sky to once upon a time.
once upon a time, i believed in miracles.
once upon a time, i believed love would conquer all.
once upon a time, i believed anything was possible
and i believed again the moment when i saw you here tonight.
now, once upon a time has never felt more alive!"
---Brooklyn the Musical
i remember sometime around november of 1998, my family, my cousins, and i went to the world trade center because none of us have ever been. we went to the rooftop and saw the whole city--all five boroughs and everything. even new jersey! it was simply amazing. and we took one of those goofy tourist pictures on the bottom floor saying that we went to the world trade centers. it said "the top of the world" at the bottom.
i remember tuesday, sept. 11, 2001 vividly. i was going out with nick natoli at the time. i was in seventh grade and i was walking out the door to go to school and i was telling my mom "i'm so bummed. i have gym today second period. it's so hard to get from gym to mr. curtin's class." and while i was in gym, angela shih was my partner and we were playing soccer. mrs. sanford was my teacher. and i kicked the soccer ball and it knocked down the cone!
by the time second period was over, it was about 9:10ish. and i changed really fast and went to mr. curtin's social studies class. and we were learning about the native american tribes. we had to copy down twenty of them from the chalk board right next to his desk to the far right of the classroom. there, he calmly told us what had happened. i didn't understand it. i didn't know what hijacked meant. and i didn't understand the situation either. each class had to go down to the cafeteria and get a speech from stupid mr. ferris. our class was the last in the school to go, and by then it was the end of third period. cc lobben started crying, but i didn't know why! it was the most confusing thing, except i knew it wasn't good.
fourth period, i didn't exactly go to math. well, i asked to leave and went to find my sister. i knew she was in band. and i asked her if she had called home or something to see if our dad was alright. she said that she had and he was.
during sixth period, in seminar with ms. scordo, she made us write up a journal thing about what we were feeling. chelsea spallone was saying how it was cool that we were like, in such an important event in history. like, we were there. you know? we all have our own experiences about sept. 11, 2001. and i agree. it feels totally awesome to have been a part of history. someday, everyone's gonna be old and some talk show's gonna interview someone saying "do you remember sept. 11, 2001?" and they'll have their story. it's neat. anyway, she asked everyone "who do you think did this?" and i remember sebastian villegas raised his hand and said "cuba" which was really funny. scott savinetti had to be all i-know-everything and told everyone it was terrorism.
i didn't know what that meant either.
but the rest of the day after fourth period was calm and carefree, but very long, simply because i had no idea what was going on. during lunch (seventh period) all the "losers" were talking about it, so i didn't think much of it anymore. eighth period, mrs. hyer asked everyone if they had someone to go home to, that no one was allowed to go home unless someone was home to supervise them or something. ninth period was extremely carefree. the day was so long, cc (who was crying earlier that day) and i were playing with uncooked spaghetti because it was some science lab. the first one of the year, actually. it had to do with building something out of uncooked spaghetti.
when i got picked up from school, my mom asked me if i knw what happened. i told her i did. "it's something with the world trade centers." clearly, i didn't know what happened. i don't think i was aware the world trade centers, those enormous buildings, had disappeared from the earth. my brother, adam, who was in second grade, said the day was completely normal because they didn't tell the elementary schools about what had happened... at all.
so we came home and my mom turned on the news and i was online, which is in the same room as the tv, so i saw the second plane crash. at that moment, i didn't cry, but i got really upset. like, something was weighing down my heart in sympathy. i put on my profile on aol something like "Location: New York, the best place in the world and those people are just jealous!"
my gramma from rhode island called to talk to my mom and stuff, since we live in new york and so close to the city. i picked up the phone and she said "michele, how are you?" and i said "i'm really scared." somewhere around 4:30, my dad came home and then, i was glued to the tv. he was telling us how the building he works in was shaking and it felt like and earthquake. at around 5:00, i did about two problems of my math homework. but i couldn't focus. i wanted to watch the news, which isn't normal for a twelve-year-old. and me. i hate the news! but i wanted to watch it.
i was talking to nick that night about the whole thing and then president bush made his stupid speech around 8:30. me and nick were talking about that, and what had happened, and all this stuff about the day. i asked all my friends from camp if they were ok and stuff. and they were. and it made me happy. my dad got my hopes up by saying "hey maybe you'll miss school tomorrow!" which didn't happen. oh well.
only one person from my town died. john paollilo. there was a scholarship made in his honor and the run to raise money for it is the first saturday after sept. 11 that year. it happened to be today, actually. but i couldn't go because i didn't have a ride.
well, that was my very long, detailed story about what happened to me on sept. 11, 2001. we've all grown up too fast, i think. and our world has changed drastically. despite that, don't forget what happened. don't forget how you felt. don't let it duel. life is rich. live it to the fullest.
and taken you to places, magical?
where homes are made of gingerbread,
and skies are always blue;
where pumpkins turn to coaches,
and wishes all come true?
has anyone ever sang you a lullaby?
you can fly above the rain clouds.
close your eyes let the melody carry you.
leave all your fears behind
and float across the rainbow sky to once upon a time.
once upon a time, i believed in miracles.
once upon a time, i believed love would conquer all.
once upon a time, i believed anything was possible
and i believed again the moment when i saw you here tonight.
now, once upon a time has never felt more alive!"
---Brooklyn the Musical
i remember sometime around november of 1998, my family, my cousins, and i went to the world trade center because none of us have ever been. we went to the rooftop and saw the whole city--all five boroughs and everything. even new jersey! it was simply amazing. and we took one of those goofy tourist pictures on the bottom floor saying that we went to the world trade centers. it said "the top of the world" at the bottom.
i remember tuesday, sept. 11, 2001 vividly. i was going out with nick natoli at the time. i was in seventh grade and i was walking out the door to go to school and i was telling my mom "i'm so bummed. i have gym today second period. it's so hard to get from gym to mr. curtin's class." and while i was in gym, angela shih was my partner and we were playing soccer. mrs. sanford was my teacher. and i kicked the soccer ball and it knocked down the cone!
by the time second period was over, it was about 9:10ish. and i changed really fast and went to mr. curtin's social studies class. and we were learning about the native american tribes. we had to copy down twenty of them from the chalk board right next to his desk to the far right of the classroom. there, he calmly told us what had happened. i didn't understand it. i didn't know what hijacked meant. and i didn't understand the situation either. each class had to go down to the cafeteria and get a speech from stupid mr. ferris. our class was the last in the school to go, and by then it was the end of third period. cc lobben started crying, but i didn't know why! it was the most confusing thing, except i knew it wasn't good.
fourth period, i didn't exactly go to math. well, i asked to leave and went to find my sister. i knew she was in band. and i asked her if she had called home or something to see if our dad was alright. she said that she had and he was.
during sixth period, in seminar with ms. scordo, she made us write up a journal thing about what we were feeling. chelsea spallone was saying how it was cool that we were like, in such an important event in history. like, we were there. you know? we all have our own experiences about sept. 11, 2001. and i agree. it feels totally awesome to have been a part of history. someday, everyone's gonna be old and some talk show's gonna interview someone saying "do you remember sept. 11, 2001?" and they'll have their story. it's neat. anyway, she asked everyone "who do you think did this?" and i remember sebastian villegas raised his hand and said "cuba" which was really funny. scott savinetti had to be all i-know-everything and told everyone it was terrorism.
i didn't know what that meant either.
but the rest of the day after fourth period was calm and carefree, but very long, simply because i had no idea what was going on. during lunch (seventh period) all the "losers" were talking about it, so i didn't think much of it anymore. eighth period, mrs. hyer asked everyone if they had someone to go home to, that no one was allowed to go home unless someone was home to supervise them or something. ninth period was extremely carefree. the day was so long, cc (who was crying earlier that day) and i were playing with uncooked spaghetti because it was some science lab. the first one of the year, actually. it had to do with building something out of uncooked spaghetti.
when i got picked up from school, my mom asked me if i knw what happened. i told her i did. "it's something with the world trade centers." clearly, i didn't know what happened. i don't think i was aware the world trade centers, those enormous buildings, had disappeared from the earth. my brother, adam, who was in second grade, said the day was completely normal because they didn't tell the elementary schools about what had happened... at all.
so we came home and my mom turned on the news and i was online, which is in the same room as the tv, so i saw the second plane crash. at that moment, i didn't cry, but i got really upset. like, something was weighing down my heart in sympathy. i put on my profile on aol something like "Location: New York, the best place in the world and those people are just jealous!"
my gramma from rhode island called to talk to my mom and stuff, since we live in new york and so close to the city. i picked up the phone and she said "michele, how are you?" and i said "i'm really scared." somewhere around 4:30, my dad came home and then, i was glued to the tv. he was telling us how the building he works in was shaking and it felt like and earthquake. at around 5:00, i did about two problems of my math homework. but i couldn't focus. i wanted to watch the news, which isn't normal for a twelve-year-old. and me. i hate the news! but i wanted to watch it.
i was talking to nick that night about the whole thing and then president bush made his stupid speech around 8:30. me and nick were talking about that, and what had happened, and all this stuff about the day. i asked all my friends from camp if they were ok and stuff. and they were. and it made me happy. my dad got my hopes up by saying "hey maybe you'll miss school tomorrow!" which didn't happen. oh well.
only one person from my town died. john paollilo. there was a scholarship made in his honor and the run to raise money for it is the first saturday after sept. 11 that year. it happened to be today, actually. but i couldn't go because i didn't have a ride.
well, that was my very long, detailed story about what happened to me on sept. 11, 2001. we've all grown up too fast, i think. and our world has changed drastically. despite that, don't forget what happened. don't forget how you felt. don't let it duel. life is rich. live it to the fullest.