Ten years ago, I woke up at my best friend Max's house. He lived in TriBeCa, about a ten minute walk from the World Trade Center. We'd known each other for two years then, and we were in 7th grade, although not in the same homeroom anymore. I was 11, he was 12.
I vaguely remember considering going to the World Trade Center that morning to buy something, but I didn't. That's likely a detail made up in my imagination over the years though. I remember the day being pretty normal. There were some people who kept saying things about two planes crashing, and I didn't know what they meant. I thought they meant two planes crashed above the towers, as odd a thought that was. I thought someone was pranking me.
Then they told us school was ending early. No one really told us what was happening. I tried to leave the building to go wait in Burger King for my mom like I always did, but they wouldn't let us outside the building alone. I thought of going home with Max and his mom, but they wouldn't let us leave with anyone but our parents. When my mom finally came and I went outside I just remember people running away from downtown. Then she told me what happened.
We picked up a few people who were trying to get to the Bronx. I remember we had to go really far north to even get out of the city. When we finally got home after what seemed like an eternity, we just laid in the room watching TV. I logged onto AIM and IRC and let my internet friends know that I was okay. I didn't really let off an aura of caring, but inside I was pretty frightened. I didn't understand what was going on then. I was 11.
We didn't go to school for what must have been a week after that. It felt like days that we watched CNN. I didn't get to see any of my friends—they all lived in the city. There wasn't much to do but browse the internet on my shitty 56k modem and play video games. Everyone was scared. It was a pretty unbelievable situation, even now. There are people that deal with these things on a regular basis though. We were lucky. That doesn't make any of it more right.
It's been 10 years since then.