Never Forget

September 11th... a day that will forever be in my heart.

Dana at Just Talk posted about remembering that day in great detail.

Me, I remember bits and pieces... it's more of how I felt than the bit by bit details of the day. I was living here in Orlando and teaching kindergarten. My day was going the same as every day. I had just dropped my class off at lunch (we ate around 10:40am). I remember walking into the room where the teachers ate and having this sense that something was different... something was strange. When I got into the room the tv was on a real channel (we had all the tvs set to the school clock). As soon as I focused on what I saw I just froze. I couldn't move I just stood there and stared at the tv. As the rest of the kindergarten team came in for lunch, I came back to reality. OMG what is going on, and what is going to happen next. Within the next 5 min or so we decided to not tell our classes what was going on and wait until the next day to discuss it. This gave parents the chance to explain what is going on with their child.

Before our classes even finished lunch, our school was put on lock down (we had to get permission to walk back to our classrooms. When we got back the children could not leave the room by themselves. We had parents picking up kids left and right. I tried very hard to keep my emotions in check. I tried to not stand at my desk watching the internet reports. And the big thing, working in my head... how am I going to answer the questions that I will get tomorrow??

I don't remember much about the rest of the day. I know I went home and called my parents who still lived in MA at the time. I remember being glued to the tv not only that day, but also the rest of the week.

I did find a way to deal with answering the kids questions (much to the chagrin of on of my kid's parents who didn't want their child to know about it at all). I remember that this tragedy came up over and over that year. I remember thinking that the children would go through life with this being a part of their past, they won't remember how I helped them deal with it in the days that followed, but I'd like to think I helped them grow.

God Bless America... many prayers to those families who lost family members in this tragedy... many prayers for those who stood up as heros during this time of loss in our country... many prayers for the world.

Let there be peace on Earth... and let it begin with me!