[MJohnM]

I want to hear some stories other than my own. -- But just for the hell of it heres mine---I remember being home "sick" because I didn't like my art teacher-And my mom was a softy-She even let my brother stay home that day too-- Coincidance it happened all on 9/11-- Anyways, I was in trouble for something- I just remember being realllly hyper and being sent to my room-Then I sat there in my room--And so I was just there bored-- So I turned on the TV-And I saw it-- At first I thought it was a Godzilla movie..Thats what made me not change the channel--It looked "reallly cool" .. (I was wayy into the old 80's Godzilla movies) Then I realized it was real..And that sort of "this is important" feeling came to me...I came out of my room to get my brother to show him (He was outside on the trampoline)..I thought I was going to get in trouble for getting out of time out--But to my surprise my mom was just sitting there playing with her hair in front of the TV....Then she got all crazy and yelled at my brother to get inside---The entire day was sorta dark and mysterious--Then after my friends had got back from school- They told me our class had a code red drill all day--and I remember sorta feeling left out--But then I also remember coming to the realization that- our government wasn't an omnipotent power...And that frightened me allot---I also remember later that night watching Bush and Rudy Giuliani ( Bastards ) address the nation, and feeling really safe. I was 9 years old. I think 9/11 made me more cynical at an early age.

[Donkey D Kong]

I'm going to be completely honest. I never gave a shit about 9/11, and to this day I still don't.

It was simply 1 attack on the United States, which is small scale on a worldly perspective. I'm sure that my views would be slightly obscured if I had a family member die in 9/11, but my overall views would most likely have remained the same.

[kryten5786]

considering i was 15 when it happened...and living in texas (had just moved there from California after the "dot com" bust) it just reaffirmed my life goal to serve my country by serving in the army then coming home and starting a very successful company not because i was passionate about business but so i could take my wealth and help rebuild the country. things i will never ever forget about that day are... saying out loud while i was putting my socks on for school "why is that plane so low?" then boom...
hearing my ignorant classmates say "white people would never attack america", my jrotc commander walking into the classroom while were were all doing our homework saying "the towers are gone", not knowing if this was the start of a wider war.. and watching people jump off the building live..

[JamieBond]

I was six and a half on 9/11. MY sister had just been born eight days previous. I more remember reruns of the footage and people talking about it in the years later. I guess it made me realize that we all tend to think we're safe out here in mighty America, but really, we're not. When I was younger, it made me wonder who would want to do that. Now it makes me wonder why we didn't do more about it.

[jennandtonic]

I was 15, almost 16, in art class. After the first plane hit the WTC, a crazy art teacher from the next room over came in and said "A plane bounced off the Pentagon!" At this time, the Pentagon had not yet been hit, so he had his story wrong...but ended up being kinda right (and since when does a plane bounce?).

At about that time the bell rang for the next hour. In my next class, the teacher had already cancelled the day's lesson and we just watched TV--saw when the second plane hit (we collectively screamed), and then the initial footage of the Pentagon. And then, of course, the collapses. I think we were too shell shocked after that.

What I remember most about the day, other than being confused, shocked, horrified, and devastated, was the absolute silence in the halls at school between classes. No one talked, everyone was just anxious to get to the next class so we could watch footage. Most teachers didn't and couldn't teach, so they found TVs from anywhere they could, and/or had their kids go to a class that had a TV. I didn't go to lunch but I'm sure the lunch rooms were pretty empty, everyone opted to watch footage instead.

[Petrovitch]

I think I was about seven at the time. I just remember being completely confused as to why someone would want to fly a plane into a building. I couldn't understand it. I think the teacher got the TV out and let us watch the news reports of it, but I may be wrong.

[aef8234]

I was slightly confused why people made such a gigantic deal over that.
"OMG, we're not safe! even though we know who did it!"
...What?
Then I realized how easily people fell for sob stories.

[Osha]

I was 9. I was actually home sick too (or pretending to be, I don't remember anymore). I wasn't very impacted by the actual events of 9-11, I think. My dad was really upset because he'd been to New York and my mom was just sad in general, but I didn't really understand why the towers were so important.

What did impact me, though, was the time after that. I was a very paranoid little child and for some reason I was convinced that my house was going to get bombed and would stay up late at night worrying about it in bed. There was also a lot of anthrax stuff on the news afterward and I was scared my mom was going to "get anthrax and die" when she had a cold.

[Nova]

wow, made you realize our gov't wasn't omnipotent
I am now seeing the ripple effects that were intended of that event
interesting long term effects
interesting that our youth are (in their maturity) now aware
aware that one is now cynical, more so than without this event occurring
and what is cynical, if not just removal of the blinders
removal of that which hides the truth
seeing truth early on can hurt
because ugly hurts
and generally we try to shield you from ugly
maybe we should expose the ugliness for all to see... ???

[HippoHunter94]

It didn't. I actually lived in Northern Virginia, only an hour or so away from where the Pentagon was attacked. However, I was seven, and it simply didn't affect me. I flew a lot, so I guess I dealt with that, but other than that, not a lot changed. I grew up in a middle class existence to where I am now.