User blog comment:Magic26/september eleventh/@comment-1956487-20110911172837

I was only 7 when this happened! I can't believe it's been 10 years. I remember what was going on like it was yesterday, of course. This was when I was still in Catholic School, and I remember one of the principals, Sister Ellen, making an announcement that our parents were on their way to pick us up. I didn't really get it, but I was happy to be out of school. When my mom got my sister, brother and I from school, she was very quiet and looked like she'd been crying. I asked her what was wrong, and told me that we'd been attacked by bad people, or something to that effect. When we got home, she turned on the news, and I'll never forget seeing the twin towers on fire on the news. My mom held my sister and I while sobbing, and we all watched. My brother was playing his Gameboy, or something. He didn't really know what was going on until later.

Later in the day, my dad got home. He had been in New York visiting a friend, or something like that. Luckily, he was far away from all of the chaos and was able to get home safely. However, he told my mom that he was worried about his younger cousin Lydia, who worked in the World Trade Center. We didn't hear anything about her until several days later, when her father told my father she had died. She was only 24 years old. I cried for a ridiculously long time, and I still cry any time I think about it and I'm crying as I write about it now.

9/11 changed America forever, but in a way, I think it united us Americans more than we had been in a long time. I just want to encourage those of us who are still angry about it to direct their anger towards the terrorists of Al-Qaeda and not the nation of Islam. Many American Muslims suffered losses in 9/11 as well. Lastly, RIP all of the lives lost, and RIP Lydia. I miss you more than you'll ever know. <3