I went into the archives because I knew what I wanted to share hadn't changed in the course of a year. I hope you've all had a peaceful and reflective day.
It's hard not to reflect on the exact moment-by-moment memories I have of 12 years ago today. Every morning as I walk up to the doors to enter school, I always take a quick second to take in the fresh air. I don't often have a major thought in my head, but I can distinctly remember noticing the color blue that the sky was that day. It was an unusual blue, one that I haven't seen many times since, despite always looking for it. I was in a hustle to get out my thank you notes from my birthday. I had made the cards so I was running late and needed to get some addresses--those were my big thoughts of the moment. Then everything stopped and life changed. I found myself in the Benson library watching everything unfold on a tv which had been set up after hearing of the first plane hitting. I don't remember if we had the internet in our rooms back then, but I do remember feeling very trapped in my classroom, unable to find out what was going on in the world and if, as we strongly suspected, something was going to happen in Chicago. Occassionally we'd pop our heads out of our rooms hoping someone was in the hallway to tell us if anyone had heard anything new, meanwhile maintaining a calm poker face with the kids. The event had happened just before the kids had left to come to school that morning, so some knew about it when they got here. I can remember the first student in the room with me that morning. By a strange coincidence, I'd known her aunt---her aunt who worked in Washington D.C. at the time, so we had a moment while talking about "Aunt Amy." Understandably the kids had many questions, and I'd not had time to process it all myself, so I wasn't even sure how best to answer them. At the time I was still watching MTV before school everyday; didn't pay much attention to world news at all. That's definitely changed, I've been addicted to the news ever since. Without a doubt, any growing up I had left to do, happened immediately on 9-11-01. My parents live in Dayton, Ohio and I can remember talking to them that night on the phone, hearing a sonic boom over the phone from the air force base that is in Dayton and being terrified. It's so strange to think how blissfully naive I was before that day.
It's hard not to reflect on the exact moment-by-moment memories I have of 12 years ago today. Every morning as I walk up to the doors to enter school, I always take a quick second to take in the fresh air. I don't often have a major thought in my head, but I can distinctly remember noticing the color blue that the sky was that day. It was an unusual blue, one that I haven't seen many times since, despite always looking for it. I was in a hustle to get out my thank you notes from my birthday. I had made the cards so I was running late and needed to get some addresses--those were my big thoughts of the moment. Then everything stopped and life changed. I found myself in the Benson library watching everything unfold on a tv which had been set up after hearing of the first plane hitting. I don't remember if we had the internet in our rooms back then, but I do remember feeling very trapped in my classroom, unable to find out what was going on in the world and if, as we strongly suspected, something was going to happen in Chicago. Occassionally we'd pop our heads out of our rooms hoping someone was in the hallway to tell us if anyone had heard anything new, meanwhile maintaining a calm poker face with the kids. The event had happened just before the kids had left to come to school that morning, so some knew about it when they got here. I can remember the first student in the room with me that morning. By a strange coincidence, I'd known her aunt---her aunt who worked in Washington D.C. at the time, so we had a moment while talking about "Aunt Amy." Understandably the kids had many questions, and I'd not had time to process it all myself, so I wasn't even sure how best to answer them. At the time I was still watching MTV before school everyday; didn't pay much attention to world news at all. That's definitely changed, I've been addicted to the news ever since. Without a doubt, any growing up I had left to do, happened immediately on 9-11-01. My parents live in Dayton, Ohio and I can remember talking to them that night on the phone, hearing a sonic boom over the phone from the air force base that is in Dayton and being terrified. It's so strange to think how blissfully naive I was before that day.
Well, soon after I'd been able to process the events and we were moving forward in their wake, I had my class painting American flags to hang in our classroom. I'd had Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" on constant rotation in my classroom and we were all singing along. One of my students suggested to me that I should record them singing and from there----like a burst in my brain----an idea came. I'd been feeling very strongly that the school needed to do something to help out. Just to help us all feel as thought we'd contributed in some way to the healing of our country. That was it! Record the kids!! And from there, a CD was created. With help from the staff at all three buildings, it had every single District 10 student on it. It had the Itasca firefighters and police on it. It had the Peacock band's patriotic concert on it and some students' personal reflections on the events and our country. It was AMAZING! (it was also the time I could no longer fit in working out and eating right so I ballooned up and have battling my way back ever since) The PTOs, school board and superintendent at the time fully supported and funded the project, and because of them, 100% of the money went to a fund specifically for the children who lost parents that day. Over $9,000!!! On the one-year anniversary I sent copies of the CD to all of the schools within one mile of Ground Zero so they knew we were out here in Itasca still thinking of them and would never forget.
Probably much like you, I've found it hard to let thoughts of that day stray too far from my brain today, especially as I look out my classroom windows to the park district's flag blowing in the wind at half staff. It sure is a beautiful flag!! Proud to be an American!!! <3
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| This is the CD we made. The flag is made up of kids' handprints. Pretty awesome, huh? |
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